Truth and Justice
by Myevltwin
Summary: "I lost everything, twice. A family I can't even remember. A Second-Father who was my Light, mentor, friend and my Light. I have no Light. No road to walk. In his final moments, I saw him fall from grace. A man who once stood against the Dark, felled by foolish Pride. I bear uncertain Truths and fearful Justice." Nickel Lancer, The Gunslinger, to his Adam Taurus and Sienna Khan.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

The crack of gunfire echoed across the land, drowning out the roaring flames that were taking hold on the house and screams of strangers that had come with it. There was no light, save for the flickering flames that danced at the edge of the darkness. Onlookers listened in silent horror to the atrocities that were happening on the other side of the door.

There was a scream and then nothing but silence.

Children huddled in fear, clutching tightly to their mothers and older siblings for safety.

Gunfire sounded again. It was closer this time. The fire that was spreading in the house slowly was drawn back like a blanket getting yanked away. The light it provided did not fade and casted a shadow of a figure that was at the door.

Slowly, almost carefully, the door was opened to a crack. The children cried in soft whispers when the door was thrown fully open and a man stepped inside, a large gun at his side. He looked down at them with bright yellow eyes before turning around, the gun in his hand, cracking to life and fire spreading in the distance as if reacting to his gun.

Creatures of Grimm arise from the fire, tempting fate, and lunging for the kill on the man. His gun thunders three times and the charging Grimm turn into black dust that scatters around him. He dropped the empty mag of the gun and slide a new one in as he turned back to the children.

He reached out to them, beckoning them to follow. The adults that couldn't fight rose with their children in their arms that they could carry to follow. When the first woman touched his hand, he snapped around, gun in hand, and let it clap five times. Five wisps of smoke flew over them for a moment.

The children screamed.

He reloaded his gun, a massive blue and white revolver, and took aim at something in the distance.

"Survivors!"

The women blinked the smoke from their eyes as the stranger lowered his gun. A team slowly came out of the smoke, two of them carrying small kids' bridal style as they moved in the center of a group of five.

"You found some?" A man with blond hair looked down at the group of survivors that the stranger had found. "Good job! Don't worry, we'll get you all out of here!"

Howls called out and the stranger glanced around, his piece raised as he looked around for the source. "We're surrounded!" A male said. He sat down his charge and pulled a thick sword from the small of his back. The woman at his side pulled out a sword from her side and glanced around looking for the spot the attack would come.

The howling grew louder and the team drew weapons to fight them off. The stranger reached into a pouch at his side and brought out a red shard. He chucked it in the direction of the howls and opened fire wildly into the air as the others all scattered for shelter or to simply find a better patch of ground to fight the approaching darkness.

Grimm closed in and their howls turned to snarls as they stepped over broken bodies and burning homes. The stranger smiled. He took aim, real this time, and opened fire. The shard ignited into thunder and light. A shockwave hit the land hard and threw back several kids that screamed in terror.

The adults who could fight and that had shown up to help all yelled a battle cry as the approaching mass of teeth and claws stampeded upon them. Gun fire clapped like thunder and silenced dozens. Those lucky enough to get within biting distance were speared and sliced into dust.

The stranger stood up from a crouched position, reloading his gun as he surveyed the land. He nodded to himself and holstered his gun at his side. "Clear," he called out to the others. There was a chorus of similar calls from the others that had fought the fight against the monsters.

"Leon!" Someone shouted through the smoke. The stranger turned to the sound of the voice and marched back to the hut where he had first discovered the survivors. The man with the large sword on the small of his back was there, kneeling over some kids and giving them candy and treatment. "We need to get these people out of here. More will come."

The stranger, Leon, nodded. "How much longer till the airship gets here, Qrow?" Qrow shrugged. "What about Raven? Can she portal us there?"

"Her power doesn't work that way. She's not connected to anyone for miles. We couldn't even get them to Haven if we wanted. We'll have to wait for the ship to return. Then we can move them."

"Or go ahead."

The two males grimaced as they looked down at the survivors. They were tired and hurt from battle. Not all of them would survive the night. Most wouldn't make the trip through the mountains. A hard choice was going to have to be made. Not one they wanted to make.

"Our team will go." The two males glanced at Raven as she rested a hand on the hilt of her sword. Her face was grim, but she knew the outcome if they stayed and prayed. "I'll make a connection to you, Leon, then we'll leave. I'll use my portal to get back and then we can simply step into town through it."

Leon nodded in understanding. "You think you can get to Haven fast enough for it to matter?"

"You think we can't?" Qrow asked quietly. He smiled down at a child that was eyeing the piece on Leon's leg. "Probably better you stay anyways. Kids love you."

Leon snickered and pulled the gun from its holster. The kid jumped back, fear in his eyes as Leon slid the shells out and pocketed them before turning the gun over so the barrel faced him and the butt of it faced the child. "You wanna hold it?"

The kid, a small one at that, reached out with tiny hands to hold the thing as the three adults were joined by two more adults. "They didn't hit the food storage areas and the water is still clean as best we can tell. Defenses are shot though."

"We're making a run for it." Qrow told the two. The woman looked unhappy by the idea. The male seemed to think it wise. "We're going to run to Haven after Raven makes a connection to Leon. Then she'll portal back and get the people to safety."

"Just Leon?" the woman asked sounding worried.

Leon stood up fully, his gun still in the child's hands. "I'll be fine. I can keep these people safe. We both know that."

"Yeah but…"

"No buts. I got this. Now get going." The team of four looked to one another before they started heading off for Haven. Once they were gone, Leon's smile faded and was replaced with worry. He knelt back down to the kid that held his gun. "You like it?"

The kid stared at him, his red eyes as bright as burning flames in the night. He gave a small nod as he tried to hold it up with one hand. The gun weighed more than it looked and he used both hands to awkwardly hold it up.

"It's heavy," the kid finally said.

Leon nodded. "I know. The gun, my gun, weighs a lot, even to me." He reached out and plucked the gun from his hands' and holstered it as he rose to his full height. He glanced around at the working adults there making quick work to form a shelter of sorts. He saw no other adults near the child. No mother to tend to him. No father to scold him for speaking to him. "Where's you family? Your mother and father?"

At this, the kid turned away, and like a coming storm on the horizon, he sniffed back tears. Leon knew and knelt down again, taking hold of his shoulders to offer him a smile. "Forget I asked, kid." He knew that wouldn't do the trick, but it was better to try than to try nothing at all. He looked around for something, anything to take the kids' mind away from the sadness of death when he noticed a furry appendage at on his backside. It was grey and white, like a dog's tail… or a wolf.

"Hey," he reached into his vest pocket and withdrew a small bar of chocolate. The kid looked at it, his tears and sorrow almost fully forgotten. "If you tell me your name, I'll give you this."

The kid licked his lips and stared at the dark item with a smile. "Nickel."

"Just Nickel? No last name?" The kid shook his head. "Well that won't do. A strong name like that needs a strong last name, don't you agree?" Nickel shrugged as he tentatively reached for the candy. Leon broke it half and gave it to him. Nickel scarfed it down after giving it a small sniff. "Let's you and I think of a last name together. When we find one that we like you can have the rest, okay?"

Nickel nodded with a large smile and sat down to start.

It took several days for help to arrive. Survivors were greeted with helping hands, food, and water. Nickel had stayed next to Leon when they entered the massive city of Haven and looked around the shelter they had stepped in to.

"Stay with me, Nickel." Leon ordered as he stepped through the crowd. Nickel did as he was instructed, and followed the man through the crowd towards the outside. The first ray of sun to hit him made him blind but it quickly faded.

Leon moved with purpose outside. He was searching for something. Nickel could see that. But the bustling city, the new sights and sounds and smells drew his young mind away from Leon. The Hunter seemed to know that his young mind was wayward and taking in everything around him.

"Never been to the city?" Nickel shook his head. Leon laughed. "Never been one for it either. Too noisy. Like the simpler life. The quieter one." Too young to hold an opinion, Nickel stared up in confusion to the words before simply offering up a smile. Leon nodded like he had heard a question and then smiled down at the boy as he moved towards a simple home.

They stepped inside. But it wasn't a home. It was an office.

"Leon?" A woman behind a large desk greeted, confused that he had arrived. Nickel was too small to see over the desk, but he could see the woman when she rose up to move around the thing and embrace him. "I thought we lost you."

"Stayed behind. Needed to a way of making sure those people got here safely." He patted the head of the boy at his side. The woman finally took him in. Her expression was one of sympathy before she saw the tail at side. Nickel held it like a blanket. Then her expression become one of hidden disgust. "Tiffany. Can I ask a small favor of you?"

Tiffany turned her gaze to Leon. "What kind of favor?"

"I need you to look into something for me. This kid, Nickel, lost his family." He tried to keep his voice down as he spoke. The woman didn't seem to be fazed by the news. "I know that there is a place not far from Haven that houses lost Faunus. I want to take him there. See if I can find anything for him."

"Take him to Menagerie."

"And do what? Leave him there? Alone and afraid? No." Leon looked down at Nickel and shook his head. "No." His voice was absolute. No room for question. He ushered Nickel out, his eyes hard and unforgiving.

Nickel stopped short, forcing Leon to stop and kneel before him. The child looked at him with confused and sad eyes, taking in all of Leon's features for what might have been the hundredth time since they had met.

Leon was a younger man, probably no older than mid-twenties at best and at worst probably mid-thirties. He was dark skinned with matching dark hair. He wore a thick vest and large coat that reached down to his ankles. A thick belt with rounds fitted in to it lined his pants and helped in holding the leather holster to his right leg.

Nickel looked to the weapon at his side again. It gave his racing mind some form of calmness. His young mind had raced with thoughts on the iron at Leon's side. Stories that he created. Acts of heroism. Monsters slain by the thing. His mind raced from story to story as he stared at the item.

Leon patted Nickel's shoulders as he got to his feet. The young Faunus looked up at the man and grew fearful for what might come next.

"Never did decide on a name." He gave a half smile. Nickel blinked and all fears were gone then and there. "How about Lancaster?" Nickel blinked as he thought on the name. He worked the name in his mind, weighing it like a stone in his hand. Finally, he settled on it and smiled. Leon gave a joyful smile as he reached into his breast pocket, retrieving the candy to keep his promise. "Nickel Lancaster. I like the name. It's a strong name for a strong man." He stood to his full height and looked to the docks. "Let's get going."

A/N

**I want to try something new. I know I haven't updated A Brave New World or The Shattered One in a long time, but they have remained on my mind and in my workings. I will update them in time, but a need to rethink a few things on them has come to me. I love where I have gone with them and will continue to work on them. **

**This story is something I had thought on since the Adam short from a year ago. I wanted to do something with it because Adam was someone who was complex to me. I liked him. Still like him. I never saw him as a jealous ex-boyfriend, but more as someone who had confided in Blake and saw her as some sort of light to guide him when he felt lost.**

**For once I would ask that you Read and Review.**


	2. An Affront to Your Light Part 1

**An Affront to Your Light Part 1**

"Nickel~!"

Nickel turned to the sound of his name, wiping a bead of sweat dripping from his brow. He slung his axe into the stump he worked with for the past hour. Leon marched out towards Nickel with a joyful expression.

"Merchants?" Nickel finally asked.

Leon shook his head. "Hunting. Figured you would like to go out this time."

Nickel looked around at the split logs that had started to pill up. Winter was fast approaching. In a few weeks they'd get their first taste of snow. Or so the old woman that lived down near the butcher shop claimed. She claimed her old bones knew when a storm was coming. And if the storm was coming, firewood was needed. Wood that he was now working diligently to split for them.

"What are we tracking?" He lazily pulled the axe from the stump and slung it on his shoulder in one fluid motion.

"Deer."

Nickel licked his lips. It was tempting. His favorite meat. Leon knew his weakness well. He gazed down at the iron that hung from Leon's hip in thought before he put the axe against the stump and sat down to ponder the idea of hunting midday. The animals would be more cautious. Their guard would be up and they'd be me alert to their presence.

"Alright."

Leon moved back inside. Nickel remained by the stump for a few extra seconds, catching his breath and cooling off in the cool breeze that blew through.

Thirteen years had passed since the fall of his home. It was nothing but a memory of pain that he had long since forgotten about. Too young to understand and too young to know better, Leon had taken him in and raised him as his own. Leon had given up the life of a Huntsman to raise him. That had given him an opportunity to be more than a simple Huntsman. They'd found land to live on. And on that land life had flourished. Their small home had become a beacon of light for those caught in darkness. Many flocked to their land. A place safe from the Creatures of Grimm that ravaged their world.

It had started small with a woman settling down on the other side of the creek that split the forest. They lived upon a small hill, overlooking it and the land below. When she came and made her home, she had been doing so to escape some sort of life of pain. Leon assisted in her life, giving her hope when she had none left to believe in. He offered her warmth, and she offered him teachings of the land in return.

She was a simple woman, and one of many to come when word spread of a Huntsman who lived in the forest. When more showed, homes were built again. Families flocked to them, seeking refuge and wanting peace and quiet from the bustling city that made up Mistral. Many had come from villages raided by Grimm and Bandits alike. They were bleak people, giving in to the idea that life wasn't worth living. Though they stayed, they kept to themselves. But like all things around Leon, the light he radiated sparked a flame inside them, and in return for his kindness and protection, they offered teachings.

A population of only a hundred, they lived off the land. It was something that Leon and Nickel had struggled to do. Nickel, who was too young to know how to hunt or to forage, was only good at detecting trouble and tracking the scent of wild game. Leon, the noble man who gave up his life as a Huntsman, could only fight and track. But when the people came to them, settled down, listened to his tales of adventure to inspire kids and give hope to the lost, they answered in kind with teachings.

The woman who joined first knew how to fish and craft nets. She knew which berries were good and which were bad. Her herbal knowledge was limited, but useful. A pair of farmers had arrived a month after her, seeking a place to call their own and test their chances at life. They knew how to grow food and where and when to do it. When clothing became hard, the old woman who followed her family of five, taught them to how to knit and made clothing for them. A bustling community was created by their actions. Walls were built. Homes become small shops where people worked as traders.

It was a hard life. But it was a life worth living. Hope was a currency they felt that had in abundance. It was their fortune and it was their life.

Nickel stepped inside the house and moved with purpose to his room. He shrugged off his working clothes and pulled on his tracking clothes. It consisted of dark pants, shin guards over boots, long-sleeved mesh undershirt, vest, and vambraces with three knives strapped down tightly. A thick belt with six pouches dangled over his hips and helped secure two wakizashis on the small of his back.

He stepped out of his room and stretched as he fidgeted with the vest. It was getting a little tight. _Guess I need speak with Margret again. _

Leon was waiting for him on the porch, his hand resting on the iron on his hip. His thumb caressed the worn hammer as his gaze swept over the small town below them.

Nickel looked down at the small town – his home – and smiled. The sun hung directly above them, lighting up the town that had once been nothing but trees, now turned into a small village. To the north, a large wooden gate stood open, welcoming to travelers seeking a nights' sleep or to sell to their wares. To the west, the creek split the land and the wooden walls meant to keep out the darkness stood tall, not even allowing the running water to come in to the town, and server as a final protective guard for the crops that were grown on the land within the walls. To the east, there were homes, small in size, but homes for the people. And finally, to the south, his home, their hill, and the final wall that was meant to shield the village from harm, a steep mountain. A path divided the town, a road that reached up to the gate and stretched out through the trees.

It wasn't much, but it was enough for them.

"Ready?"

Leon nodded mutely.

Nickel took a big sniff of the air, his red eyes closed to help him smell out the animals in the area. It took him a single minute to find the first scent of their quarry. He glanced down at the village, his mind left questioning how much they needed to bring back and if he would have the remaining daylight to finish his job.

But those thoughts passed. Memories of the savory meat he so loved filled his mind. His task could wait. The deer needed finding.

They moved through the mountain that had always had their backs in search of the deer. Each step always seemed like his first in the forest. The fresh scents were strong and delightful to him.

Leon put a hand on Nickel's shoulder, his yellow eyes darkening as he knelt down, touched the soft soil with his fingers and looked ahead. Nickel crouched down as well, looking at the print that was pressed in the soil. It wasn't deer.

Bear prints.

Nickel's first thought was the Grimm. Its print was big enough to be an Ursa. If one was this close, it was worth looking for to put down. One was enough to cause problems. Panic. Panic that would bring more Grimm.

There was, however, the chance that it was not a Grimm. It might simply be a simple bear. They lived in an area with berries and water. Food for such a beast. They needed to know. They had to hunt it to make sure that whatever made the print wasn't something dangerous for the town.

Nickel took point, sniffing out the beast that made the print. He couldn't make out the scent. Ursa could smell just like normal bears to him. No one had caught a real one long enough for it to matter. They died when captured.

Leon followed, his hand still resting on his gun. He once more caressed the worn hammer as a nervous twitch, his mind working how Grimm might be this close. Nickel knew what his adopted father was thinking. Bandits might be in the area. Close enough to lure one Grimm with their tainted thoughts.

The guards would have to have work a little later tonight for the village's protection.

They passed a few downed trees. Claw marks stood as some form of ownership to the destruction, marking its territory for all to see. A warning to those that were passing through and welcoming arms to those like itself.

Still, the two pressed on to find the beast. They pushed through thick brush and downed trees in search of the creature. Their search was easy. Its tracks grew more noticeable to the duo. Leon took point, his hand gripping tightly to the revolver. He drew it in one fluid motion, his other hand on the hammer as a mass of teeth and claws suddenly sounded in the distance.

Nickel withdrew his two blades, his eyes narrowing on the mouth of a cave. Chittering cries sounded from within the dark abyss. He could smell blood inside the cave. It was fresh.

The former Huntsman moved forward, peering into the darkness with squinted eyes. Nickel tapped his shoulder with his knuckle, the other hand wiggling his weapon and motioning towards the mossy rock wall at his side.

Leon stared into the darkness, his mind working how to approach this problem. Finally, as if resigning himself to a dark fate, he agreed and stepped back. Nickel tapped his blade against the rock. It rang out like a gong in the silence that hung over them, yet was quieter than a mouse chattering with another.

It was enough to get its attention.

Nickel jumped up above the mouth of the cave while Leon stepped further back, his hand holding tight to his gun. He fired a warning shot to draw it out further. It worked. The beast, a black monster twice the size of a normal bear, stood between them. The bone spikes on its back were coated in blood.

It reeled back to its full height, towering over both of them, and let loose an angry scream to their presence. A call for help, perhaps.

Leon fanned the hammer, releasing four shots in its chest. Center mass. The beast paused, as if thinking on the actions that had just transpired. He fanned the hammer two more times. It staggered and fell to all fours. Not dead. It charged him. Leon dove out of the way, letting the massive beast slam through a tree, toppling it with a loud crash. Leon emptied his gun into its side. It howled in agony, but remain alive.

Nickel jumped for the beast from his spot above, landing on its hip. His twin blades tasted flesh and sank deep into the joints. The beast howled, surprised by his arrival, spinning around in an attempt throw him off. It worked. Nickel fell over the tree. But the beast had made an error in its judgment and paid the price.

Leon had reloaded his gun, slid new steel into the cylinder, and fired all ten shots in rapid succession. Its head splintered and blew apart with each round fired. By the time the fourth shot had reached it, the head had been nothing but a stump. Still, Leon had finished the movements and unloaded all ten for safety.

The empty rounds hit the soft soil and were replaced in a single, quick, fluid motion that was like lighting. So fast that it had been something almost unseen by Nickel, even to his time with the man.

Leon looked around, his eyes scanning every shadow for movement. Nickel sniffed the air. Even with all the discharging from the gun, he could still smell the original target, but his concern was on the Grimm. He couldn't detect anymore.

Holstering his pistol, he jerked his head in the direction of the way they came. Nickel nodded in silence and took point. They still had enough light to make for the deer. If they were lucky, they could find their target and get it back to the butcher before sundown.

The Faunus could smell the deer. It was close. He knelt down as Leon moved behind him, his hand resting on Nickel's shoulder. The teen crept along the soft soil and moved brush out of his face quietly as he made his way to a small clearing of trees. He could see it. It was grazing and not in a good spot for him to work. Two does flanked it with two small fawns not much further away.

Leon jerked his chin in the direction of the stag. Nickel nodded quietly and reached into his pouch for a small pebble as he withdrew three throwing knives from his vambrace. He rolled the pebble between his thumb and index finger for a moment before flicking in the direction ahead of the stag. It raised its head to the noise. Nickel jumped up, releasing one of the three knives quickly.

The deer hit the ground; a knife lodged in its eye. It gave one scream of pain before Nickel and Leon were on it. The others had run off, eager to escape their hunters. Nickel withdrew the knife from its eyes and wiped it clean on his pant leg before putting it away. The thing twitched, but didn't move to run. Nickel pulled his wakizashi from its scabbard and found purchase in its chest. The thing bucked once before death took it fully. They gave it a moment silence before removing the blade and picking the deer up.

They opted to remain quiet the way back for safety. What wildlife was in the area didn't need to be scared off. The trip back was quick. They had just stepped into the center of the village with the sun at their backs. A few more hours of sunlight remained. More than enough time for the butcher to get her job done.

"Got another deer?"

Leon hefted the create in question as he repositioned it on his shoulders. The speaker, a lanky man with silver and red hair stepped up to the duo. He was younger than Nickel. The two weren't friends.

"Cobalt," Nickel greeted with disdain in his voice. His displeasure with the young man had been public knowledge. Despite Leon being more or less the chieftain, people saw Nickel for what he was: A Faunus. A second-rate citizen at best in the eyes of humans.

Nickel had always tried to ignore the hateful eyes that followed him when he stepped through town. Just because he was Leon's adopted son didn't spare him the hateful looks, even from the people he had helped save. The older generation had always been the worst. Some had warmed up to him, like Margret, but most saw him as a monster.

It hurt lot.

When they would visit the city, he would see posters of Faunus that were giving rally cries to their kind. They were a group, though he never knew the name, he dreamed of running to them to aid in their cause. He wanted to go where they went. Cry for equality. That was what they were about. Maybe one day he'd work up the courage to go on his own, see them, and aid them. But not this day. Not right now.

Cobalt gave Nickel a quick glance of disgust before turning his gaze upon the dead deer. "You get it, sir?"

"No." Leon smiled. "My son got it."

Cobalt snorted in disbelief. Nickel shrugged off his disbelief with a grunt as he pushed open the wooden door to the butchers' shop. Cobalt left them alone from that point.

"Pepper! You busy?" Nickel called out.

There was a loud clang of metal hitting metal before a yelp of pain followed. A man ran out holding his hand as blood dripped from a clean slice across his palm. He rushed out of the building as a woman marched out, sighing as she marched up to the counter. Her hands were soaked in blood, but she made sure to not touch anything. She regarded the deer on Leon's shoulders with mild amusement. No doubt finding humor in the state he was sure to be in given that they hadn't drained the blood, pure their usual routine when hunting.

"Bet your back is covered in stink."

"New guy slice himself good?"

Pepper sighed again, this time touching the side of her head, leaving a mass of blood in her graying hair. "Stupid sumbitch wasn't looking to what he was doing. Sliced himself good. He'll come around."

"Doubt it." Nickel replied. His father hefted the deer again, repositioning the thing as a way of informing of the weight he carried. Pepper rolled her eyes and ushered them to follow. The back part of her shop/home was all gore. Dead animals hung lifelessly, their blood pooling into large buckets.

Leon moved the dead stag to a hook. Its head dangled over a bucket. Pepper inspected the thing, eyeing the wound that had killed it. "Lot a meat on this one. Might last two days for you two."

"You calling us fat?" Leon asked in a joking manner. He patted his stomach, which had never grown or shrunk in the time that Nickel had known him.

"I'm not calling you fat, Leon. I'm calling Nickel fat."

"I'm growing!"

"Yeah. Outwards." Nickel huffed angrily to her teasing. She smiled and reached up to ruffle his hair. He pulled back before she could, his eyes locked on her blood-soaked hand. As if she had forgotten, she looked at her hands and arched a thin brow. "One might think you don't like blood."

"Not in my hair." He caressed his after mentioned locks with worry. His hair was already dark, but blood might make it look darker. He didn't like having that smell on him anymore than he already did. "How long?"

Pepper pulled a thick knife from behind her back and slit the throat of the deer. Blood pooled into a bucket. It was slow to drain. "Not long. Few hours. If I had more help today, it wouldn't be much of a problem. Or I can just hope no one else shows up with a kill for me to clean."

"One day I'll learn how to do it." Leon promised.

She pointed the knife at his chest, poking him once to get the message across. "No, you won't. You've been saying that for years, buddy." She started her work after making a shooing motion with the object. They left without a second thought.

No point in angering the woman who cleaned their kills for them.

The sun was getting low and Leon looked down at a small pocket watch he always carried. "What time is it?" Nickel asked, smirking at his adopted father.

Leon snapped it shut, putting the object back in his pocket. "Time for you to get a watch." He chuckled at his own joke. Nickel rolled his eyes and started walking for home. "I'll be home before midnight. I'm just going to talk to the guards."

Nickel gave a wave of confirmation as he continued his long march, but stopped to watch a group of children playing in the streets with a ball. They kicked it back and forth, trying to score points by putting it in a net at opposite ends of the traveled road. Margert's house rested on the west side of the street, where one net was placed, and the other net was placed between the butcher shop and smith shop.

Like quick flickers of lightning, he briefly saw memories of his former life in his old home. He played with a ball and a few other kids. They all cheered happily when a goal was made. He never made a goal, but he tried.

His vest began to itch again and he sighed in frustration as he finally unzipped it and moved to the house where Margert lived. The door was always opened, and only when you got close to it did you hear her soft humming as she sang a tune most didn't know. He rapped his knuckles on the door, alerting her that he was near.

"Come in!"

Nickel slowly moved inside, removing the vest as he walked into the living room. She had a fire going. Hot embers remained. He smiled as he sat the small vest on a stand and moved to the fire. "I'll have the logs down tomorrow for you, Margret."

The old woman laughed happily. One wouldn't think she needed it with the blankets she made and wore like ponchos. "I have extra outside, Nickel." He smiled. He knew that. He had brought them and stacked them for her. "What can I do for you?"

He grabbed his vest in one hand and raised it up just enough for her to take notice of it. "I think I'm still growing too fast. It's already a little tight on me."

Margert stopped knitting, a look of worry washing over her face. "That can't be. I just did that two months ago." With the dull end of her tapestry needle, she poked his stomach. "You need to lay off the meat. Eat less of it and more vegetables."

Nickel scratched at the back of his head. He laughed a little at her proclamation. "We are eating vegetables. Just the other day we had a fine stew made of beef, potatoes, corn, and onions."

Margert snorted. "That's not a stew. A stew is potatoes, corn, onions, carrots, and celery. No. Meat." He raised his hands in a show of submission. He knew not to anger the old woman. Least of all the woman who made his clothes. She resumed her knitting. "You smell like the forest. Find anything good?"

"Yes. We went hunting. Brought it back to Pepper to clean."

Margert nodded as she stopped working on the sweater. Setting her tools down, she looked at the fire and then to the window. The mountains that sat behind the hill, Leon and Nickels' home, was already growing dark with clouds. "Not much longer. The storm will be here soon."

"I know. I'd like to get my vest fixed before winter hits."

"It'll be done. Don't you worry about it. I'll have it back to you before long."

Nickel smiled and said his goodbyes, but not before throwing two more logs on the fire for her. When he walked outside, the children had stopped playing their game. Their parents must have come calling for them to return. It was getting late, but the sun still hung in the distance, defying the darkness for as long as it could.

The Faunus marched back to his home and then into his room. He shrugged off his hunting clothing and returned to wearing his working cloths. He returned to his work before the hunt.

It was hours later, well in to the night, when his father returned. He looked tired as he marched to the table where leftovers were set out. Leon grabbed his glass of water and downed it in a few gulps. Nickel snickered as he watched his father put the glass cup gently back on the table.

"There were more prints in the area. Stitch found tracks. They were leading away from us." Nickel looked down at his food to hide his worry. Leon leaned forward, his massive iron now resting on the table. It looked pristine again. "Traders came in today. They're staying in town."

"With who?"

"Pepper and Doctor William." Nickel blinked in surprise. "They should be out of here tomorrow. I might go with them just on the off-chance Grimm do show up. Can't see people off and let them get eaten. Not neighborly."

They finished eating in silence and headed off to bed.

Nickel awoke a few hours later when the smell of smoke reached his nose. At first, he had thought his father had started the fire. But his nose soon picked up something else in the smoke. Charred flesh not that of animal wafted through the air.

And blood.

He threw the sheets off his form and turned to the window. He saw a dark cloud hanging over the village. Dancing lights flickered from spot to spot life fireflies in the night. But they weren't dancing. They were piercing the dark cloud that hung over the village.

Nickel grabbed his hunting equipment, screaming to his father. The man awoke with a start. His feet hit the ground hard enough to crack the boards. Almost as one they rushed out the door, armed and ready to defend their home. They had only gone a few paces down the hill when they broke through the dark cloud. They saw it then. Heard it more than saw it, really. Screams. Unholy screams.

The village was on fire. Beset by dark figures that moved with purpose from home to home. What few people that ran for safety, the dark shadows chased, like cats playing with their prey.

Leon gave no pause. He rushed down the hill, his gun already in hand. Nickel followed after him, his twin blades at the ready. The first shadow they came across was one to put fear in his belly.

A lanky Grimm, standing upright with the broken body of Margret in its jaws. It dropped her unceremoniously to the burning ground for which it stood upon. Leon gave it four shots to the chest. It howled in pain and died in the fire.

"With me!" Leon ordered. He reloaded his gun to make sure that whatever came next he was ready for.

Nickel crouched down low just off to the side. He was almost invisible in the night. Together they moved from home to home, clearing out the Creatures of Grimm that had come to their town. The guards were doing the same. It seemed that they had been made aware of the situation long before they had. Nickel didn't doubt that they had tried to get to them as soon as it started.

Grimm poured in through the gate. The massive wooden structure that had been used to keep them at bay was in splinters. The dirt path was littered with tiny burning embers where the splintered wood lay. The Grimm paid the fire no mind and marched brazenly through it, risking death at the hands of mother nature.

Leon emptied his gun, jettisoned the empty shells to the ground, slid in new iron to the cylinder, and kept firing. It was all one fluid motion. He fired ten shots. Reloaded. Fired again. The actions were repeated.

Nickel was beside him, throwing his knives through fire with pinpoint accuracy. Each knife thrown laid another Grimm to rest. But he was not made of bullets like his father. He produced them from pouches like magic. Each time he emptied his gun, a new set of shells were produced from his pouches. He'd never seen him empty so many shells in his life.

More monsters surged through the fire, eager to rip and claw anyone they could get apart. Nickel threw his last knife. Leon emptied another ten rounds and reloaded just as quickly. He looked to Nickel, saw him arming himself with his wakizashis to defend himself.

Leon growled in frustration. "Nickel! With me!"

Nickel nodded, following without question. Guards with long-range weaponry stepped up to take his place, blocking the hole created by the Grimm with bullets and arrows.

They made a mad dash for the smith shop. Leon kicked in the door, sending it spiraling into the darkness. He yanked out a small red shard from his breast pocket to light the way as he rummaged through the back of the counter for something. Nickel defended the door, his back to his father to defend against any attackers.

"Here!" Nickel turned to the command. His father tossed him a massive revolver, near identical to his own, and grabbed a box of shells. "I taught you how to use mine. Now use that!"

Nickel looked down at the odd thing in his hands. The massive revolver looking near identical to his fathers', yet it bore its own unique look. The thing was a silver, with dark splashes of red paint like dried blood near the barrel of the gun. It weighed less than it appeared, almost weightless in his hands. He popped the cylinder, slid in eleven rounds one by one, de didn't have speed loaders like his father, and snapped it shut.

The two rushed back out into the fray. Leon was further off to the side than normal, likely giving him room to fire his new weapon. Nickel was patient, not firing randomly like others into the sea of monsters that rushed through the open gate. He took aim, careful to make his shots count. Three rounds were fired in almost quick succession from him, and three Grimm dropped dead in the fires.

A cry of terror drew Leon's attention to the rear. He spun, his trusty revolver in hand and ready to fire. Two shadows moved across the land and jumped the wall. He took aim, but didn't have a shot, and swore, knowing what had brought about this attack. Leon turned back to the onslaught that rushed them, and fired until the gun clicked empty.

It was nearly an hour later when the fighting stopped. What few Grimm remained in the area had wised up and left, not eager to face death like their breatharian. Out of a hundred people, only thirty walked away from the encounter.

No one dared to speak for a long time, worried that their voices might attract the Grimm again. But when they did speak, it was Leon who finally gave the news.

"We were tricked. Bandits had snuck in with the traders that came in. Pepper and Doctor William are dead, obviously. But if they were running anywhere, they had to be heading up through the valley towards Kuroyuri."

The head guard, Stitch, tapped his chin thought. "There isn't much up there," he told them. "That place was attacked some few years ago. Nothing up there but ruins."

"Which makes it a perfect hideout."

"There is a cave up to the north of the village." Nickel cut in as he finished loading another speed loader. He was busying himself to keep calm.

Leon nodded. He remembered it too, though fuzzy as the memory was, he did remember it. It would be a perfect place to hide out after such a raid. It sported a few defenses as well, but nothing a run of the mill Grimm couldn't overcome without concern.

"If they're hiding up there, then chances are high they'll be on alert. They'll be waiting for us." Leon closed his eyes. He was putting the information all together in his mind. With so few survivors and little left in the way of defense, leaving was the only option. But… "We'll take a small team to hit them. The rest of you are to pack up. Get what you can carry. We'll leave as soon as we're back. It should give everyone time to get their affairs in order."

The people didn't like the idea of leaving. That was a given. No one wanted to start over. But they had little choice. Rebuilding would take months. They didn't have that. The first winter would be upon them soon. With so little manpower and another potential raid by Grimm or Bandits on the horizon, they had no other option but to run.

Nickel placed his last speed loader into a pouch on his belt, his red eyes burned like fire. He wanted revenge, just as much as the others, but his mind was left to wonder if running after bandits was a better idea than staying to defend.

"We leave at dawn."


	3. An Affront to Your Light Part 2

**An Affront to Your Light Part 2**

No one dared to speak since they left at first light. With anger in their hearts, it was no wonder that a few Grimm were seen following in their wake. But still, they set out to do what needed to be done: Justice. It was such a pretty word that translated to murder.

Nickel barely remembered the time he left his first home. Back then he was too young to understand the ramifications of the evil acts done. But now he understood.

Grimm were weapons. Weapons to be used. Pointed at someone or something. Have enough hate in your gut and you could lead an army to anyone's doorstep. A cruel twist of fate, created by those with powers from above. To make a monster that fed off negative thoughts was just… cruel.

A group of bandits had used Grimm as a weapon to raid their village. Grimm would destroy anything man built, yes, but at the same time, they would leave much undamaged. Hidden away goods that could be used or fixed. They went for objects of protection or transportation. Not the food. Grimm had no use for such a thing. There one true purpose in life was to destroy.

And for the second time in his life, Nickel felt powerless to stop the onslaught that had happened. He was a boy the first time, and a man this time. Yet, the outcome was still the same. Why?

The young Faunus pushed the thoughts from his mind. He focused more on the journey. The hunt for the people responsible for the attack. Luck had been somewhat on their side. He caught the familiar scent of fresh sweets in the wind. The people who had raided them had come food, or so it seemed. Inventory accounting was out of the question. No telling what else they may have grabbed when they fled the scene.

It was dusk when they decided to make camp. They had managed to get close enough to the base of the mountain that overlooked Kuroyuri. Nickel could still smell smoke wafting the small village.

He traveled to it a few times in his younger years with Leon. They ensured that supplies were brought safely. There was always a scent of lilies that floated through the village. It was a rare thing for him to smell. He liked it, almost as much as he loved deer meat. Leon had told him a few survivors had managed to escape the raid on the village, but he couldn't put faces to names. Nickel hadn't seen it in years. He doubted anyone who knew survived. Or if either would remember the other.

They took shifts watching over the camp. Leon had just woken up when Nickel finished examining one of his many knives. He rose without a sound and managed to put his belt and holster on all the same.

Nickel followed him to where Stitch was posted. The man looked tired and beaten. He didn't even offer a smile of gratitude as he turned to the small camp for his six hours of rest. Of all the people to follow them on their hunt for justice, only Stitch and his son, Abel, had followed.

The young Faunus parted from his father and sat downwind of the mountain. His nose would help them all. If someone came from the mountain, he'd detect it. Nothing had ever gotten past it. Made parties harder for his second father.

Leon sat further away, still downwind, but close enough to be within eyesight.

Nickel didn't doubt that this was eating at him. He'd spent years protecting these people. Now, all thanks to some Bandits, his work was ruined. The light that he represented to the people was now diminished. Leon wasn't broken by any means. He was just sore. It hurt to gain so much and lose more than what you gained.

Still, Leon was a beacon of light that shone in the darkness. No matter how much the wind blew or the shadows crept upon his light, it remained true, shining for all to see. The two of them were proof that you could survive through terrible times, but you needed to believe you could survive.

A faint scent of blood hit the air.

Nickel rose to his feet, his eyes peering deep into the darkness for the source. The metallic scent was weak, even to him. It had to be far. His red eyes wandered the mouth of a cave that sat on the side of the mountain. There was no light from it. Not one he could see. But the smell, it seemed to arise from there.

The Faunus chewed lower lip in thought. He could inform his father, but Stitch and Abel had just gone to sleep. They couldn't leave them. And if one of them left, they would be at a disadvantage to attackers. He could only wait for sunrise before he made a move.

A rustling of leaves sounded behind him. He kept perfectly calm as he removed a knife from its holster and a wakizashi. Slowly, carefully, he turned to the sound. It was closer this time. He sniffed the air, hoping to luck out and detect whatever it was that approaching him. No luck. The bush a few paces back and to his right moved. He rose to his feet, his eyes narrowing on the thing.

A rabbit jumped out of the bush, its little nose wiggling as it looked for something.

Nickel regarded the thing carefully before standing to his full height and looking around. His eyes were better than humans. A natural gift from being a Faunus. He could see in the dark. But all he saw was emptiness and trees that swayed in the wind.

He sheathed his knife, but kept his blade out in the off chance whatever had stirred the rabbit was hostile. The little rabbit sniffed at something on the ground before bolting off.

Nickel tilted his head to the side, sniffing the air once more. The scent of blood remained, though it was stronger this time.

He released the worry from his mind and faced the direction of the wind again as his gaze turned to the fractured moon above. For a brief moment, he felt a deep longing for love wash through him. Many nights he spent watching the moon.

There was no hiding the fact that he was in complete opposition to his father. Leon favored the rising sun, a warm light that embraced all. Nickel, favored the moon and the eternal darkness it brought. The cold night it would bring, sweeping through homes and towns to take the ill away and bring them to a better place was a welcome to him. Many times, he would sit out on the front porch and gaze longing to it. His father had questioned it a few times, but their talks always ended the same.

"Why do you favor the moon and darkness?"

"I favor the darkness because I hear a story when I sleep. It speaks of a dark love and a wolf that vents its loneliness to that Darkness. The eternal one awakens, Darkness shrouds its pale form, a timeless desire. It's midnight hair cascades to its shoulders. Full dark red lips part slightly to taste the soul streaming from the pale flesh beneath it. Now a night of a new life, I rise."

It was a quote, though his memory of it was skewered thanks to time and age, and he did not know the origin of it. Sometimes, when a new moon arose, and he slept soundly under its careful watch; he could see flashes of a man, similar to himself, holding him and speaking of a wolf that only found love at night. Perhaps this man was his first father, the one he barely remembered. Leon had once told him that the mind was a tricky and powerful thing. It would create images to fill the void and piece broken things together with new pieces from another image to make it whole. Perhaps what he saw wasn't his father, but the image of a man who he believed was his first father.

From that moment on, Leon had taken to the idea that Nickel was more than his adopted son: He was a force of nature. A shadow, and a shadow could not be killed. Not as it was. It could be forced back by light, but that light needed to bend to the darkness as well. An equilibrium, balance, brought to the world through its actions. After all, life could not exist without death. Light, was nothing without darkness. The Noble Man still loved his adopted son dearly. This did nothing to sway him from his path.

His representation of the light was one that had always peeked Nickel's curiosity, as he referred to it simply as "His Light". It was nothing but an idea crafted to give hope, but one that inspired Nickel as a boy. His light, his Semblance, gave hope to those that had none, for he was hope given form. And within that truth there was a great promise. If one man could stand against the night, then so too could anyone – everyone.

Leon's rise to fame was a hard-won battle against overwhelming odds. When he spoke of his team, it was in remembrance. They had died early into their carriers as Huntsmen, like so many before them. The last of his team and unwilling to partner with others for long, he favored the road and doing good because it was the right thing.

Justice was a pretty word served through dark means. If one peeled back its layers, he would only find necrosis at its core. Justice was nothing but a fascade; a clever construct used to legalize murder. But it was in contradiction to his second father that he must act because to do nothing was no different than an evil act itself.

So, Leon kept to the road. Doing good because it was good.

Nickel shut his eyes for a brief moment, taking in the sweet scent of the cool air that blew in. He could smell the blood still, but there was more than just that. There was sugars and pines and animals in the mix.

When he opened his eyes, his gaze fell from the moon to the cave. It was lit now. A light danced from within the darkness of its mouth. He rose to his feet, as if it would give him a better view, and saw nothing else.

The sun would not rise for another hour.

Gravel under boot sounded from behind him. He spun, his wakizashi already up to defend himself. Abel stumbled out of the brush, rubbing his left eye as he moved to sit beside him.

Nickel holstered his weapon and watched him for a moment. "Time?"

"About five hours." Abel yawned and gestured to the mouth above. Nickel nodded. "They must have just started."

Abel stifled another yawn. "So soon? Must be getting ready to move out."

"I figured I'd let you sleep more."

"Not needed."

Nickel rose to his feet, his hand moving to his belt. He looked at the cave again, his eyes narrowing on the thing. He made up his mind. "Let's inform Father and Stitch." Abel gave a thumbs-up as he yawned for a third time, this time shaking his head as if to rattle them away.

He made the short sprint to his father and knelt down beside him. "You been watching?" he asked in a gruff voice. Nickel nodded silently. Leon rose slowly, his eyes lingering on the dancing light in the mouth of the cave. "Let's get Stitch and Abel on their feet. The sooner we do this, the better."

Nickel wondered if he was doubting the idea of this hunt. Why now of all times? Did the gravity of their intended actions finally hit him? There was no way to know but to ask, but Nickel refused to ask a question that would receive no answer.

Stitch and Abel were waiting at the camp, checking their equipment one last time. Stitch favored a spear as his weapon of choice with a green jewel afixed at the end of the handel. Abel favored a bow. Both were dressed in matching garb of furs and leather armor. Aura could protect one from only so much. A little extra protection made all the difference between living and dying.

Leon gave a sharp gesture to the mountain. They would move silently up it until they were upon their enemy. Nickel took point and sniffed out the path, ensuring that abushes could be tripped.

A cold wind came in again. Nickel paused and looked back at the mouth of the cave. The metallic scent of blood was still in the area, but it had shifted just enough for the source to not be the cave. Leon was by his side almost instantly. When Abel and Stitch were beside him, they knelt down just enough so that thick brush covered them from view.

"The blood is moving."

Leon swore in his mind. "Track it."

Nickel rose and followed the scent. The three were not far behind.

They moved swiftly through the brush, careful to not disturb it as best they could. As the morning sun began to crest the horizon, they came upon a clear and a small road. A group of people were loading supplies onto a truck. One of them was injured, holding his left arm. He was reasoning with someone inside the vehicle about his injury, pointing to the mouth of the cave.

Nickel sniffed the air again, and nodded to his father. They readied weapons, rose, and stepped out onto the road.

The young Faunus didn't know what happened next. It was all too fast. Someone fired off a round. It was loud, like thunder, and hard to track. The source had been from all around. He dove back for cover, grabbing two knives and throwing them with ease. Two men hit the ground, the knives lodged cleanly in their throats. They reached to pluck them out, but a bullet and arrow found purchase in their skulls.

Abel released an arrow into the back windshield of the truck, shattering it. The passenger of the truck slumped forward, the arrow piercing through the back of his skull as the driver fought to throw the vehicle into drive.

Leon stood his ground, standing tall amidst the gunfight. He didn't run from anything. His revolver sounded like thunder, ripping through metal and flesh alike as he fanned the hammer. Ten shots fired. Three bodies laid to rest.

The truck bolted, spilling items over the ground and removing cover for four more people. They rose, guns raised, and fired. Stitch stepped in front of the rounds, taking two to the chest, but smiling as he surged forward and speared the closest of the four through the throat. When he yanked his weapon free, a shotgun was put against his side and fired. Aura and leather armor or not, the power of the gun and its rounds ripped through him. His body held together only by his armor that might have fought to keep his organs were they rested, but it didn't matter. He slumped forward, dead.

Abel screamed and fired another arrow. He caught one in the shoulder and when he readied another, a hole formed in his chest. Near death, he fired one last arrow and killed his killer.

Nickel rose up from the bush he had jumped in and opened fire. His shots were clean and true. Two shots fired. Two bodies dropped. The remaining man stood his ground, his shotgun smoking as he squeezed off another round.

Leon's gun boomed one final time.

The bandit fell, his gun falling to the bloodsoaked soil.

All was silent. The wind did not blow. Not even an animal dared to speak or move. The silence was unnerving to Nickel. He had held his breath through the entire thing. From start to finish, it lasted less than ten seconds. Even staring at the corpses that littered the earth, his breathing did not return. When it did, the reality of his actions came back to him; with all their festering delights to toy and berate him.

Nickel had killed men before. It wasn't the first time, and he doubted it would be the last. This was the law of the world. Unspoken as it was, the law was a known thing to all: He who is left standing is the one in the right.

"That's that."

The Faunus growled. Leon emptied his spent shells and slid in new iron before holstering his gun.

"What?" Nickel asked, his voice mixed with anger and shock. "How can you say that?"

"This was justice."

"It was murder. Revenge! Nothing more!"

"I fail to see the difference."

Nickel sank in size at that. A tall young man now made small before this man. He did not see his second father in the same light as did at the start of their journey all those years ago. That light was darkened by...pride? Guilt? Rage? He didn't know. It hurt to see him like this. Too long his father had been idle in their home, longing to return to the road. Perhaps that longing had twisted his virtues into something cold and unforgiving.

For all that stood before him now was an empty shell of a man, burdened by untold sin. The Noble Man lived no more.

Leon stood a little straighter, his eyes now hard, and he caressed the worn hammer of his gun. He never looked down at the bodies. Not because it was too painful, but because it was never something he did. It was the sad and true life of a Gunslinger such as himself. In that moment he did do just that.

As his gaze swept over the fallen, his mind emptied at the sight of Abel and Stitch. "Another life I couldn't save…"

Nickel tilted his head and snorted at him. When he took a breath, his mind screamed a warning. A scent, powerful and close, was soaked in sweets and blood. A scent that was not before them.

"RUN!"

The cry came too late. A black hand snaked out from the trees. It punched right into Leon's chest, threw him against Nickel and kept going. They hit a tree, went through it, and then up part of the mountain before the arm stopped. Like a slithering snake the ampendage drew back, dragging two long white claws along the soil as it did.

Nickel rose to his feet, his eyes frantically darting from shadow to shadow for the beast. His father got to his feet, alarm evident on his face. All the negative emotion by the bandits had surely roused the creature to come seeking the source.

A horrible roar, more like shriek, ripped through the trees. Their ears bled. And from the sound came a figure, much like the noise, that matched it in terror. A monsterous being of dark intent, riding a creature of unspeakable evils. It's long arms dragged along the dirt, twitching with each new rock they drew across.

When father and son were to their feet, it smiled at them. It was happy to see them, yet it's expression was not for harmonious intent, but ill favored intent.

Leon fired his revolver ten times. Ten bullets hit it square in the chest, but did not taste flesh. They pinged off its thick skin, barely leaving a mark. The horse took a step back, snorted in disgust to their presence while its rider tilted its head, smiling still, as it brought one arm above its head.

Nickel talked his father out of the way. He could feel the intent. Its hatred; its lust for murder. They rolled ten paces down the mountain. Though they rolled away from the creature, it had not lost sight of them, and like a snake coiling back for the perfect lung, it's harm hung above its head, poised and ready to be unleashed.

When they stopped rolling, it struck. Fast as lightning. The arm danced around trees, snaking its way to their forms and hit the ground between them, it's two long claws digging at the earth where they once lay.

Leon rolled, grabbed a speed loader from his pouch, slid the new iron in, closed the cylinder, and fired. He took aim, made sure to make the rounds count. They pinged off the bone armor on its head, but the rounds carried weight, and the head, unlike the chest, snapped back. Its neck bent at an odd angle as Leon finished firing all ten rounds. When he stopped, the head jerked back to its normal position, and it's grin grew in size.

Nickel fired on the creature, his aim, clean and true, striking hard against the bone helm that was now cracked from his father's rounds. His head staggered back yet again, though this time, it howled in pain. The bone helm splintered and a black mist seeped from a wound.

The horse, which had done nothing previously, reared up, pawing at the air, before racing in their direction. It's rider released a bellowing scream and flung one arm forward. It darted along the ground, and tagged Leon in his left leg. His aura shone brightly. The long claw stuck in his leg and the horse carried on.

Nickel fired on the arm, eager to blast it off. The horse passed they both. Physics kicked in and the arm went taut. Leon did scream. Not even as his body was yanked away from his son and left to drag along the ground behind the best. He rolled on to his back, ignoring the blistering pain that ran through his body, and fired on the horse's flank. It yelled and stopped moving.

The rider's body twisted fully to face him, and lifted him up. Leon didn't give it the pleasure of a scream. He fired on its face. The thing snorted as each round bounced harmlessly off its body. It brought him close to its face and breathed on him with a stench of death. Then, like a cat playing with a wounded animal, it tossed him aside. Its horse turned to face him, pawing at the earth in protest to the game.

Nickel slid into view, firing from the hip as he fanfired the gun. The horse yelled angrily as each round tore into a side of its body. He tossed a knife at the side of the riders' head where it stuck with ease, under the helm of bone it wore.

The Grimm released a pained scream that carried for miles. It ripped through Nickel's bones and he felt a wedge being driven into his skull. His ears bled, and copper filled his mouth. When the screaming subsided, it looked at them both, a look of joy spread as its jagged teeth began to bleed.

A cry was returned. The morning sun had answered the Grimm's call.

Death was on its way.

Nickel felt the cry more than he heard. They were close. Closer than what he could smell. Their presence was on them, around them, and even in them. He felt coldness slither inside his body. With all his strength, he willed the coldness away.

All of this, created by his second fathers' ambition to do justice.

Leon limped to Nickel's side, clutching his leg with one hand and his revolver with the other. His breathing was pained, his skin now pale. He didn't need to say it. Nickel knew it. They were going to die here. His father, the Noble Man, the man who stood as a beacon of light, and truth to a people who had been devoid of hope, now stood without any to spare. His light, his hope, was now gone.

No… Nickel would have spat at his father for such a thing. A man who proclaimed so much good and hope should not fall in such a way.

The Faunus grabbed his father up, spun and ran. Leon was surprised by the action, but not unwelcomed. He hobbled with his son, ignoring the pain as best he could, and fired a few shots over his shoulder at the beast. It remained it where it, happy and content to watch them flee.

They wouldn't get far. Leon knew that. They could run up the mountain, set fires as they went, keep what they could at bay and fight the rest. He had the ammo, the dust, and the knowhow to do it. Nickel had the strength, the resolve, and the belief that they could get through this.

In that moment Leon realized his error. An error many times he'd challenged and won against: Despair. He'd fought that battle before with himself. Believing one could survive anything was part of the equation to make sure one survive. The other part was strength and the knowledge to do it. Nickel had not given up. Nor did he lack the strength and resolve to keep pushing forward.

Nineteen years old, and now somehow stronger than a man twice his senior.

Leon wanted to laugh bitterly at the idea of such a thing. But here it was. His adopted son, hefting him through a forest, uphill, running from creatures so dark they despised others evils.

His light was fading now. He could feel it. His aura was nearly depleted, healing the injury he had sustained from combat. His foolish pride. The pride that led them here, to their graves.

But perhaps, maybe not both their graves.

An Ursa appeared, yelling angrily as it made a charge from their left. Leon fired once. His round struck it's skull and the thing toppled end over end as it dropped. Another beast replaced it. He dropped that one as well.

Nickel grunted with each shot fired. He felt his muscles begin to burn and his lung ache with pain. The Grimm saw to it that he go a path of their making. He could see it, but do nothing. They blocked him at every turn.

And just like that, they were trapped.

Nickel came to a stop at a cliffs' edge. He looked down at the rushing rapids, shut his eyes, and turned to face the horrors that had chased them this far. His mind raced with images and places he'd seen. Was his life truly flashing before his eyes? Why now? He was alive. Not dead. Those could wait.

"Nothing ends…"

Nickel looked down at his father. Leon shut his eyes tightly, willed himself to his full height. A tall man that stood taller than the shadows before him. It was a ray of hope for Nickel. The Noble Man, his second father, mentor, and friend, now stood anew with hope and power.

Leon turned, offered a smile, placed his hand on Nickel's chest, and shoved him hard.

Nickel blinked in surprise. It was slow for him, as thought fate was kind enough to let him gaze for an eternity at his savior. He saw every detail of his father as he fell down from the cliff. There were no tears. No sorrow or anger. It was pride that he saw on his father's face. Pride and hope. Hope that his son might live to see one more moonlit night.

Nickel did not see his father's last stand against the night. He felt it. The rushing waters and ripping wind could not drown out the sound of his second father's gun. It rang out once. The shot, a thing now far beyond Nickel, hurt him. For in his minds' eye he saw the fight, the shot fired, and the image of his father as he stood. His gun in one hand, poised, ready to fire, a look of defiance across his face, and an army of darkness that lunged to his form. Yet his light shone and he fired. Twice. Three times. His gun cried out against the onslaught.

It did not fire a fourth time. Nickel did not hear it.

The young Faunus hit the water. He broke the surface, coughed up liquids and gasping hungrily for air. His back hurt from the fall, but he paid it no mind. He listened for a fourth shot, a cry that he was okay. Nothing.

He let himself drift in the water. It would take him across Anima, or far enough away from the slaughter. A map would have been helpful, but he didn't have one. He'd never needed one before.

There was no telling how long he lay drifting in the water. The current had taken him far. He didn't recognize any of the scents. When the current finally calmed, his forced his tired muscles to motion and headed for the bank. The ground had never felt more hard in his life. His hand pressed deep into the thick sod, but to him, after what felt like an eternity of being in the powerful current, felt harder than stone.

He pulled himself close to a small tree, put his back to it, closed his eyes, and for the first time since his first home was destroyed, cried.

Nickel didn't move from the tree for hours. He was too sore and tired to do anything. Sleeping in a dark forest with no backup wasn't an option, but his body and mind had other plans. They did not care for the horrors of the unknown. He slept for hours. When he awoke, surprised to find himself still among the living, he glanced up and saw the moon.

Slowly, he got to his feet, though weak as they were, and began heading off towards the scent of smoke. He tried to keep the ill thoughts at bay. What strength he had was limited and a chance meeting with Grimm in his state would end him.

He broke out of the trees and onto a dirt road. It stretched for miles in both directions. The scent he was trailing wasn't that much further, but it was off the road. He stumbled in the direction, once more entering the dark forest.

Brush and fallen trees blocked his path. He stumbled and caught himself on a crack trunk. Warm liquid slid down his arm, but he did not care. His stomach threatened to give away his approach.

He knelt down close to the earth when a natural light began to grow in the distance. Cautiously, he approached, his hand on his revolver. He moved silently until he was near enough to feel the heat of the flames.

Nickel sniffed the air. He could smell people. Their scents were… strange. Not normal to him. He stood up, held his side when his stomach threatened to eat the inner walls of its lining. His shoulder began to ache as well.

A tent that he had not seen before opened and a woman stepped out. She had black hair cut short with two black cat ears atop her head, both with a golden piercing, and wore a black hakama and sandals with white tabi socks and was hugging a thick fur coat to her form.

"Are you alright?"

No words left his mouth. It hung open lifelessly. His eyes began to feel heavy. He looked at his shoulder. His entire arm was soaked in blood. Had his injury that bad? How did it happen? Was it from the fall? He didn't remember.

Pain, hunger, exhaustion, and sorrow finally gripped him. It hit hard. He staggered under his own weight as he fought to remain standing. The woman turned back into the tent, said something, and returned with a man.

The two caught him before he could fall and brought him to the fire.

"What happened?" the man asked.

"I don't know. He stumbled up this way."

Nickel's vision began to fade. He turned his head to the side, peering into the darkness. A man with red hair stepped forward, a hand on the hilt of a blade and a mask like the monsters he'd run from.

"...Grimm…" He weakly gestured to the redhead. The man touched his mask and then looked to the two with a sense of worry.

"Adam, do a sweep of the area!" the man exclaimed as the redhead was already moving to do just that. "Get his clothes off him. He's soaking wet." Nickel's mind slipped into darkness.


	4. The Faded Light

**The Faded Light**

Nickel awoke suddenly to an unfamiliar sensation. He was buried beneath blankets that smelled of the ocean and a cool morning breeze. His bare flesh, the thing to wake him, itched against the fabric that stuck to his form.

There was a rustle of movement near him. Slowly he opened his eyes and found the woman from before folding his clothes and setting them neatly on a small tray on the ground.

His dry throat ached and his words were forced. "Who… are you?"

The woman turned sharply to the gnarled voice, putting a hand to her chest as she breathed a sigh of relief. "You scared me." He blinked and rubbed his throat. "My name is Kali. You gave us quite a scare when you showed up. We thought Grimm were in the area."

Nickel tried to prop himself up, but collapsed when his right shoulder began to burn. Kali moved to his side quickly and helped him sit up. "...Where…" he coughed violently for a few seconds. "Where am I?"

"In our camp. Do you know where you are?"

He took a sniff of the air and shook his head. "No. I know I'm in Anima, but I don't know where. I floated in the river for hours. The last place I was in was Kuroyuri."

"What were you doing out there? There's nothing out there."

"I know. We were hunting bandits that raided and lured Grimm to our village. Father said it was justice." His knuckles cut into his palm in silent fury. Blood slipped between his fingers. "It was nothing but revenge."

Kali's ears fell, reflecting her sorrow for his words. "I'm sorry for your village. Did it survive?" Nickel shook his head. Her sorrow only grew. "I see."

"The people did. Well… not all of them. There was about a hundred of us. I think only thirty survived. We sent them off to Haven for safety with the guards that didn't want to follow. My father and two others went out to find the bandits. We found them. One got away. But a Grimm showed up. It was… different."

The Cat Faunus retrieved some bandages and laid him down. Nickel glanced at the wash of bandages that covered his right shoulder and part of his chest. It was stained red. How he didn't smell was shocking to him.

Kali began removing the old bandages and treating the injury. He could barely make it out. What he could see was a hole, no bigger than acorn that was lined with brown splinters and a salve that was bitter smelling. She removed what she could before cleaning it and pulling a small vial with a cork out. When she popped it, a foul scent filled the air, one that made Nickel turn up his nose in disgust.

"This will sting a little."

The ointment stung after a few seconds, but Nickel didn't react. Kali chewed her lower lip in worry. Nerve damage? Or was he just being tough?

She banished the thoughts and helped him sit up again to apply the bandages. Once she was done, she got to her feet and took a step back, almost as though she were marveling at her work.

Nickel threw the sheets off and started grabbing his clothes. Kali turned around sharply and ran out of the tent. He looked down at himself and shrugged before returning to the task at hand. His mesh armor was hard to put on, but he managed. When he was fully dressed, he stepped outside and found a few sets of eyes on his form. Kali was speaking to someone, a man, and making gestures towards the vehicles that were being loaded with packs.

A man with auburn hair slicked back stepped up to him. Once he was closer, Nickel saw two bull horns that curved back into his hair, almost hiding in plain sight, and wore a mask that looked like the faces of the Creatures of Grimm.

"Adam!" Kali called out to him, waving him over before he could speak to the new curiosity that was in their camp. Nickel watched him go, which wasn't far, and could hear her speak to the masked man. "Any signs of them?"

"No. I'm going to keep looking, but I think they went ahead. Two of the vehicles are missing."

"It's probably for the best. Hopefully they can get to the town before sunset." Kali turned back to Nickel, holding a plate of food. "Here." The plate was thrust into his chest. He looked down at it, noticing that it was mostly fish, and smiled. "You said you were hunting Bandits. Are you a Huntsman?"

"No." The fish needed salt or something. He wasn't sure, but it was food and he ate without question. "Father was a Huntsman. Former, anyways. He stopped being one to take care of me." He felt naked without his weapons. His eyes danced over the small camp in the hopes of finding them. He didn't. "Where are you going?"

The man she had been speaking too sat down, his ornate armor jingling as he did. "We're grabbing survivors and others that want to leave and head to Menagerie. Word is; there's some sort of terrible Grimm running around right now. We haven't seen it, but it's clearly not normal."

Nickel shut his eyes. For a moment he was back at the fight. He could see the rider, sitting atop the horse. "The rider?" he asked carefully.

"Haven't seen it. Don't know what it is. Some sort of hybrid type. Nothing we've seen before." The man chewed on his lower lip, revealing buck teeth. "Saber Rodentia. I'm Captain of the guards back in Menagerie."

"Then why are you here?"

Saber looked at Kali. She nodded. "Kali here is wife to the Chieftain, or rather, is the Chieftain right now. She's here to help in the evacuation and provide support for those that are leaving everything behind. When word got to us from the White Fang that many people were fleeing an unknown Grimm, she rushed out here to help. Not wise, in my honest opinion."

"My husband is the leader of the White Fang and currently doing the same. Humans aren't helping us and are only making this more difficult. Though we all want to survive, they are preying on our hasty retreat because they feel like they can take advantage of us. What little food we have remaining is being given out to survivors."

"What's your plan? How are you moving all these people?"

Kali gestured to the rundown trucks. "We're moving everyone that wants to go in the convoy. It's the only way. Once we get to the coast, we have three boats that will be taking us back to Menagerie. From there it's just a matter of helping them get settled in."

Nickel worked his jaw in thought. He couldn't leave these people without payment for taking care of him. It would go against his second fathers' teachings to do so. They saved him. Compensation was required. On the other hand; he had to return to the survivors and help lead them to Haven. He didn't doubt that they didn't need him, but as the adopted son of Leon, he had no other choice but to help them. To do so would be a slap in the face to every noble deed his father had done for them.

Still… he was a long way from them. He had no idea where to even start or how to deliver bad news. It was something he'd never done.

Kali put a hand on his shoulder, snapping him from his internal struggle. She must have been able to see it if the pained look on her face said anything. "You don't have to help us. We helped you because you're a Faunus, like us. It's not right to let one of our suffer like how you had."

The young Faunus nodded, though he still struggled with the idea of a good deed going unrewarded. "I'll help you get to your camp. From there, I'll head back out. I need to get to Haven, or at the very least, head back to Kuroyuri so I can start backtracking to my home and then search for survivors."

Sabar rubbed his chin. "Could use another body. Some of my men went with the others to make sure that they got to town safely." He reached into his pack and pulled the revolver out, handing it back to the young man. "Fancy piece. Where'd you get it?"

Nickel holstered the thing carefully, his shoulder acting up as he did. "My dad had the smithy make it for me. A replica of sorts of his gun. Same model and design." He caressed the smooth hammer in remembrance to his second father.

"Interesting."

The younger Faunus got up, dusting him as he did, and rubbed his shoulder. "It won't be much, but I can track well with my nose. Anything that's upwind I can smell. I can also read prints, so if you need game hunted I can cover you on that front."

"Sounds reasonable." Kali stood up, smiling as she offered her hand. "When we get to town, you're more than welcome to stay the night and get a proper rest." She tilted her head a little, offering a coy smile. "Never got your name."

"Oh. It's Nickel Lancaster."

Sabar shook his hand and motioned for the remaining people to finish breaking down camp. He whistled and called to the other guards. Adam was the first to arrive. "Nickel will be joining us on our way back to town. Keep an eye on him."

Adam gave a slow nod as he looked at the young Faunus. He was checking his gun over and scratching at his shoulder, most likely trying to adjust the bandages. "Understood."

Nickel hissed and reached through his jacket to rip at the bandages. It was unnatural feeling and he wanted to remove the thing.

"I'd keep that on if I were you." Adam told him. He gestured to the trucks with his chin. "Load up. We're leaving in a few minutes."

The canine Faunus nodded as he moved for the vehicles. Adam trailed behind, giving orders and making sure to keep an eye on the new Faunus. They both entered the back of the truck and sat opposite of the other. When they hit the road, Nickel closed his eyes and felt his mind pull back to the fight and the choices that had led him here.

Leon was dead. There was no denying that. It was a sad and bitter pill to swallow, but he did. If they hadn't gone after the Bandits, then maybe none of this would have happened. He would be stuck in a city that despised Faunus, but he'd be with Leon. More than once they had talked about him attending an academy to become a licensed Huntsman. But those talks usually ended with Nickel's fear on the subject.

Why would he leave his home, a life he'd learned to love, behind to become a monster slayer? His father claimed it would be a noble act. Nickel could do what others couldn't. Maybe not to the same level as himself, but he could be a ray of hope in the dark for those like himself.

It was childish thinking.

Nickel never saw much of the outside world. He was nineteen years old, yet was nothing but a wide-eyed babe to the new world he had become a part of.

Part of his mind wondered how long he'd last against the night. There wasn't a single doubt in his mind that he wouldn't survive another night if left unattended. All those lessons he learned, wasted now. He could hunt, sure, but sew? Skin an animal? Farm? Those were beyond him. He knew only the basics. And what of a home? Would he live alone?

Without his father, the light he represented, he knew that his light would fade as well. No. It was already fading. The light of his father was now his, but it was fleeting. In his mind he saw it for what it was: A single spark battling the storms. It might stand its ground, defying everything, but that spark would run out. His hope was gone.

The young Faunus slumped against the fabric, his eyes open to the darkness that had begun to envelope them. He licked his lips and lowered his head. Adam was watching him, or so it seemed. The mask made it hard.

"Why you do wear that?" Nickel blurted out suddenly. He hadn't meant to. It was a silent thought that came out on its own.

Adam touched the mask with his free hand, licking at his lips in thought. "Humanity sees us as monsters. I want them to remember what I look like when I defend our kind." Nickel's silence gave him pause. The younger Faunus actually looked confused by the statement. Unconsciously he touched the mask again, this time making sure it was fitting perfectly to his face. "Do you know who we are?"

"You're Faunus. Members of the White Fang, though I didn't know that until recently."

"How?"

Licking his lips, Nickel suddenly found himself feeling very small. "I grew up on a farm in a small village. No more than a hundred people at best. I hardly ever went to the city. When I did go, I only heard stories about a group that were working for us. Trying to make things better."

"Were they bad where you lived?"

"I was the only Faunus."

Adam tilted his head just enough to convey his confusion. "Why live there? It had to be rough. You could have left at any time… I assume."

Nickel touched the pristine hammer of his revolver with his thumb, his eyes closed in thought. He could have left at any time. Nothing had been bad about living there. Sure, the hateful looks from others had been painful, but they needed him just as much as he needed them.

"I could have left," he finally confessed sadly. "I thought about it at times. My life wasn't bad. My second father was a good man. I trusted his judgment. He was fair and kind to me. Raised me as his own. Taught me how to hunt and defend myself. Even gave me this gun that was made in the likeness of his own. Taught me how to use one as well."

Adam looked at the thing on his hip. It was big and scary. He wore it like it was something earned. Perhaps he was honest in that part. To have a gun like that… He must have trained to have such a thing. A big iron at his hip. Some would laugh, but Adam could find peace in the knowledge that he was allowed to have a weapon, let alone train with one.

Nickel worked his jaw as he pulled his hand away from the gun, shut his eyes tightly.

_"Nothing ends…"_

Leon's final words to him spurred confusion within him. What did he mean by that? Was it a warning? Or that nothing could truly change? At the end of the day, no matter how many monsters you slew, bad guys you gunned down, the world replaced them. Was that what he meant? No matter how much good one did, it would all be for nothing because someone else would simply take their place?

It made Nickel sick to think like that. Did his second father truly believe in that? All the good he did, now nothing more than dust in the wind. How could he think like that? True as it was, there had been no hints that his father was like that. He was, and had forever been, a man who inspired hope in all that came before him.

"But in the end, I saw him for what he truly was: A man that was burdened with sin. He let his pride get the better of him. We could have stayed with the others, helped them get to Haven, but… he wanted revenge. That's all." He shuddered as a cold wind began to blow in from the ripped fabric. "I lost everything…"

"I'm sorry for your loss. I know what that's like. But I choose to stay positive and fight in honor of their memories." Nickel remained silent. Adam reached forward, touching his shoulder and offering a sad smile. "You don't strike me as someone who gives up so easily. Why do it now?"

"The only life I knew was on a farm in the village. I call it that, but I wasn't a farmer. I hunted, chopped wood for the others, and helped in defending the village. We had others that grew crops and butchered the animals we'd find. But… it was the only life I knew. And now that life is gone. I… I don't know where to go."

Adam pulled his hand back as the vehicle came to a stop. "You could come with us. Help us. Be a voice in the crowd that speaks out for us. I won't force you, but if you don't like that life, I know that there are people in Menagerie that might find your skills useful."

Nickel laughed bitterly. "What skills?"

"You said you could hunt and track, right? A lot of people we find are coming from places that forced them into labor camps and made them know only one skill. You might not be able to do much, but enough that it would make a difference for someone… anyone!"

The wolf Faunus sat forward, his hands laced together neatly in his lap. This wasn't what he wanted to do. He wanted to return to the others, help them get to Haven and then… Then what? There was no plan from that point. If he had a plan, it was simple and stupid: Survive. He wouldn't make it through the winter. Maybe that would be for the best.

"Everyone out!" Sabar shouted.

Everyone filed out slowly. The darkness was welcoming to Nickel. Others looked around, unhappy with the darkness. Nickel enjoyed it and it brought a smile to his face. But that smile soon faded and reality hit him hard again.

Where was he going to sleep? Kali hadn't made things clear enough for him. Did they have a spot for him? Would he be sleeping with someone? He hoped not.

Survivors were led to the center of camp where others rushed to greet them with blankets, treatment, and food.

Adam stepped up beside him, eyeing the crowd that was slowly starting to spread out and make beds in tents. Nickel touched the hammer again, his eyes closed.

"I know that you still need treatment for your arm. They have people here that can help with it." Nickel glanced over at Adam. The man was touching the side of his mask, as if he were making sure that thing stayed on. "Let's get you to a tent. I'm sure a healer will be available for you."

Nickel followed the redhead in silence. He was too focused on what he was doing after finding the rest of the survivors and getting them to Haven to speak. It was a puzzle he needed solved.

"Take off that… shirt?"

Nickel did as he instructed and the Faunus treating him could only stare at the odd sight of the man in front of him. Adam even laughed, having felt the same when he first laid eyes on the young man.

He had brown hair that was splintered and frayed from ill care, skin that was burned from years in the sun, and covered in pelts of different animals. Nickel looked like he stepped right out a history book from the days of old. The only modern thing he wore was a leather belt with a holster that held a massive revolver: A new age weapon.

"Fennec, where is your brother?"

The Fox Faunus looked up from his patient, a smile etched on his face. "He's heading back to Menagerie with a group. A ship came in early and we decided to start moving people."

Adam nodded and looked down at Nickel as the bandages were removed. "You can trust Fennec. He'll patch you up." Nickel looked away from the two, his eyes half-lidded as he tried to hide his discomfort. The redhead knelt down. "The pain will pass if you let it. Remember them in your heart and you will be fine."

"And my faded light?" His question gave the two White Fang members pause. Fennec eyed Adam carefully for a moment, judging him as he went back to work on the wound.

The Bull Faunus shut his eyes. For a moment he wasn't here. He was back at the SDC Company, listening to people scream and cry for someone to help them. His left eye began to sting a little, but he pushed the thought and the past from his mind. "If your light has faded to a spark, you need to find someone to reignite it. Taking the first step to recovery is taking the memories of the fallen and remembering them for who they were. If you do that, you will find your light rekindled."

"And if not? Then what?"

"If you want life to come into your life, you need to stand. But if that is too hard for you, then I will be your light until you have the strength to stand." Adam exited the tent, but not before offering a smile to the younger Faunus.

Nickel shut his eyes and let the cold night air wash over him.


	5. A Helping Hand

**A Helping Hand**

Sleep didn't come as Nickel hoped. It was sparse, coming and going for only minutes at a time. What sleep he got was more nightmare than dream. Bodies. Flames. The Grimm. His dreams were dark. But some ray of hope remained, pulling him in the direction of something other than loss. Just before reality could rip him back, he'd see a figure standing off in the distance, a hand beckoning him.

He threw his blanket off, rubbing his shoulders for warmth as he reached for his clothes. If sleep would not come, he would simply stay awake. The moon was out for the time being, and if it was out, so too did he want to be out.

When his foot touched the grass outside his tent, he felt a voice tickle in the back of his mind, forcing his vision to the moon. For a brief moment he saw a woman. She was radiant, unearthly in all her beauty. When her lips moved, it was like listening to the rain fall.

But she was gone in a flash. Unseen by all but Nickel.

Nickel moved around the camp and the nocturnal Faunus that mingled together near fires. Some of them were talking about what they lost while others mentioned the horrors they had endured under the reign of humans. It was a frightening tale to him.

Having grown up with no real prejudice to him, he was an outcaste to them in his eyes. His second father, a human, had raised him as though he were truly his own. The other villagers might not have liked him, but they tolerated him and even leaned on him for help in doing what they could not.

Tents littered the area, dotting them with small campfires and snoring in some. Kali had made sure to keep Faunus that were of the night more on one side of the shelter to ensure that they weren't disturbing any.

Nickel sniffed the air. Dozens of new scents filled his nose. Most of them were new to him, but he could easily pick out the scent of meat, mostly beef and fish, and fruits. If his stomach didn't have to be so loud he could avoid everyone and pretend the food didn't exist. He'd already had one meal on their behalf, he did not want to impose another.

Needing space, the Faunus moved for the wall that lined the entire camp. It had been a hasty thing, he could tell. Some were still working on it to ensure that whatever horrors might arrive at their door could be turned back, or at the very least, halted long enough to feel the sting of steel on their flesh.

A gentle breeze moved in, rustling his hair and nipping at his bones. He shivered, but continued on his march towards the gate. It was closed, but a few guards were standing near it, talking and looking back at the crowd that had gathered near the fires.

Nickel gave a curt nod to them. One of them returned it, while the other waved. He shrugged and stood short of the wooden wall, his eyes lingering on the moon that poked out from it.

There was a time when he knew this day would come. That time was long ago, but it was a reality he knew he'd have to face one day. Fathers' outlived their children only because they defended them to their dying breaths. It was an inevitable fate that his second father would fall one day, leaving him behind. He only wished that it had not been in the pursuit of revenge.

In an ideal world he'd still be back at the village, John, the smithy, would have taken over and that would have been that. Nickel would still have a home, defending them from harm and sticking to the routine he had created for himself all those years ago. In an ideal world, that would have been the life.

But the world held little concern for the dreams of its people. What was done was done. There was no changing it. No turning back the hands of time to undo the errors created by their choice.

The dilemma of what to do now was the thing keeping him up. He knew that. There was no denying that he didn't have a plan from here on out. Making it up as he went would see his demise, same as trying to return to the life he once had. A few people might come back or try to take the village as a safe haven for the night, but it wouldn't return to its former glory.

So the question of what to do now was his problem. Where could he go? Menagerie seemed like a solid start, but what would we he do? Geography wasn't his strong point, so there was no telling what kind of place it was unless he asked. Considered the Kali obviously came from there, it was near an ocean. The scent of salt water on her body was clear as day to him.

Did they have winters there? He could chop wood again, but how much of the land was trees? Where would he stay? And with what money would he pay for things? Too many questions and not enough answers for him to like the option of going somewhere unknown to him.

Nickel would much rather take his chances with the Grimm. At Least they were predictable.

"You look a little lost in thought."

Nickel spun to stare at a man with messy brown hair and large bat wings protruding from his back. Clothing with dark stains mirrored the exposed flesh and he stood with a confident grin.

"Or are you simply gazing at the moon?"

Nickel turned back to the object in question. Soft words filled his mind for a sharp second. A voice, as pure as spring rain, entered his mind. When they passed, he inhaled sharply and faced the man. "The moon."

The stranger gave a sly grin. "Fancy to see a wolf eyeing the moon. Or are you a different type." He gestured to the tail. Nickel gave a shrug. It didn't seem to bother the winged Faunus. "You look like you could use a friend. Name is Yuma."

"Nickel Lancaster."

"Nickel? That's an interesting name. Means your family were rebels. Wanted to stand out during the color war… or whatever it was called." The two shared a soft laugh at that, despite how terrible it had been. "What's eating you?"

Nickel turned back to the moon with a sigh. "The future."

"Deep. Talk." Yuma moved up beside him, both now looking to the stars.

The gray haired Faunus sighed in frustration. He didn't know this man and it seemed wrong to spill such problems on to him. Yet, the man seemed friendly enough, even going so far as to force the subject.

"I have a choice. A duty, if you will, to people that my second father let down. We were attacked by bandits. They lured Grimm to our village. We decided to leave and head to Haven. Father wouldn't have that. He wanted revenge. So we left in search of that. Got him and the others that followed killed. I'm the only survivor. But now I'm honorbond to ensure they get to Haven, even though I'm now over here and they're somewhere out there."

Yuma, to his credit, listened to the entire thing. Nickel, once he was done, sighed explosively and glanced over at the winged Faunus, as if waiting for him to simply disappear. Not that he would have blamed him.

"Sounds like you have a chance for a new beginning. Maybe not here, but somewhere."

"And that's my problem. After I leave and make sure that they get to Haven, I have no idea where to go."

Yuma nodded slowly, his arms crossed as he too thought of a solution. To Yuma, Menagerie was a start, yes, but there were other options. Nickel could simply live here and help bring other Faunus that wanted to leave to Menagerie or wherever else they'd want to go. Work as a guard for the White Fang. The options weren't as limited as the down Faunus seemed to think.

Before Yuma could open his mouth to start the brainstorming, a rumble caught his ears. Nickel rolled his eyes, glaring at the offending noise maker. "Come on." Yuma ordered. "Let's get you something to eat."

"I'd rather not."

"Too bad."

Yuma grabbed Nickel's wrist and started heading for the camp fires. Nickel protested verbally but not physically as the bat Faunus dragged him to the center of the village. Once they were near the fire, Yuma released him and grabbed some food from one of the fires.

"Here."

Begrudgingly, Nickel took it and sat down to eat. Yuma joined him, munching on an apple as he gazed into the dancing flames. Both sat in silence for several minutes.

Nickel's mind was elsewhere for most of it. Lost in memories he was never sure were real. Flashes, like lightning, raced through his mind. He jumped from one to another. In one he was outside, standing in the rain with a tall woman at his side. One had him playing with kids while another saw him running from monsters. Dark times. Times he had long forgotten came rushing back.

Forcing them down, he looked at Yuma, racking his mind on something to talk about. He'd never actually started conversations back home unless he had to. It was a foreign thing to him. There were probably only a handful of times he had started an actual conversation with anyone.

"You know how to throw knives?" he asked randomly. Yuma arched a thin brow at the question while shaking his head. Nickel laughed nervously and opted to keep quiet from that point on.

"I get the feeling your socially inept." Nickel offered silent confusion to the word, forcing Yuma to laugh in good nature. "It means your not that good at it. Don't worry. It's not a problem. I don't know how to throw knives. Never had a reason to think I needed to. Sounds cool."

Nickel blinked and looked around for a moment. He didn't have any of his knives or ammo, so demonstrations were out of the picture. "What did you do for fun? I… I learned how to throw knives and use my gun."

"Never really played games with others, did you?" Nickel shook his head, his tail going flat on the ground. Yuma laughed again, scratching at his nose as he tossed the core into the fire. "I spent a lot of my time learning how to steal to survive. I grew up in a large town. Lots of people. I stole small things, like food and clothing. Lived off the streets. It was kill or be killed for me." His eyes lost focus for a moment. When they snapped back to focus, he shuddered and looked to the stars. "It wasn't a pretty life. I avoided the mines. SDC got my parents and put them in there. They offered them good wages, or so they claimed. Got them killed in the end."

"How?"

"Dust was getting stolen. They blamed the Faunus. Cops got involved. It was easier to bury a body then it was to do an investigation. Twenty-eight people lost their lives that day. I was ten when it happened."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I got my revenge. Well… not really. I stole a lot of lien from the guy. A lot! Helped keep me alive for a bit. Then I heard about this Grimm that started running around causing problems. Rumor has it, Mistral's government isn't doing anything to help out. So, when Kali and the Fang came through, I jumped on. I don't wanna die."

Nickel caressed the pristine hammer on his gun for comfort. "You won't die." Yuma laughed bitterly. Nickel drew his gun, setting it in his lap as if he were examining it. The winged Faunus eyed it carefully. "I fought a Grimm that was different. We never heard about something running through villages. Still not sure that what we saw was what you're running from. But the thing was different, I'll give it that. Some crazy rider sitting atop a horse made of angry teeth and bone. I can still hear the scream. It made my ears bleed with its voice." 

The two shuddered under such a thought. Nickel, having experienced it, and Yuma, believing the sound to be a voice speaking death in a tongue no one could understand. The image he created was also frightening to him.

Yuma envisioned a man, more monster than man, sitting atop a beast that might have resembled a horse that breathed black smoke and left burning prints in its wake. A darkness so foul it suffocated the air around it and no life would grow where it walked. It was a being of pure darkness in his eyes. Something to be feared.

"That thing was more monster than any Grimm I'd fought before. Neither of us could stop it or delay it. It lead the other Grimm like a leader. An Alpha, maybe. It was smart. When it knew we couldn't stop it, it just played with us. It wasn't out to kill, just torture."

"But you got away. That's what counts. You fought this thing. Maybe it's a different one."

"I got away because my old man shoved me off a cliff into the river. An angry wall of Grimm had chased us up there. I was ready to fight. I guess father had other ideas."

"Sounds like he did a noble thing. No father should have to bury their son." Yuma yawned and got up, stretching his arms. His wings extended to their full length, an impressive five feet, almost as tall as he was. "Suns' coming up. I think I'll turn in for the day. If you decide to stay, come find me. I'm thinking about joining the White Fang. Better to move with a pack than be by myself. Maybe I'll find a pretty girl if I stick around."

Nickel chuckled at the thought as he entertained the idea of having a girl that liked him. "Yeah… I'll keep that in mind." Yet another thing he'd never thought to experience in his life. Maybe if they had more girls that were his age back home, he'd have considered such a thing.

Figuring that now was as good a time as any to leave, he got to his feet and began sniffing the air to find Sabar or Adam. One of them could give him back his ammo and knives. He needed those if he wanted to get anywhere without getting maimed. An armed traveler garnered less attention than an unarmed one, less someone really wanted to try their hand at taking your stuff.

It didn't take him long to find Sabar. The man was speaking with another guard that was rather animated about something.

Nickel waited patiently just beyond hearing range to give them some privacy. He didn't have to wait long. Sabar motioned for him to come over after a minute of talking and gestured to the guard. "This is Nickel. He was one of the people we picked up."

The guard, a woman, stared at him, eyeing him from top to bottom, and judging him. She did not wear armor, instead favoring a black corset with white pants. Her skin was dark with red markings and her hair was black as night, nearly hiding her two cat ears that rested atop her head.

"You don't look like much."

Nickel shrugged, unsure of how to respond to such a comment. Damn his lack of social interactions. "I just came to get my stuff," he told them.

Sabar gave a curt nod as he lead the two toward a fair sized tent. He threw it open and followed them in. "We have your stuff over there. I'm sure you understand why we never gave it back?"

"Of course." Nickel was just happy to have his knives back. Those were the real threat over the gun for him. The gun was a new addition and not fully broken in yet, but the knives were his children.

"You carry a lot of weird stuff."

"Not really that weird." The woman started laying out the other items that had been confiscated from his pouches. Herbs in plastic bags, a whetstone, oils, flint, and pebbles lay on a table, each one looking worn from use in their containers. "Each one serves a unique purpose."

That was enough to give Nickel pause. His attention was now directed to the woman, her hand gesturing to each item as she explained its function.

"The whetstone is most likely for his knives, obviously, along with the oils. Though, I'd also assume the oils are used as a catalyst for fires with the flint. Herbs for mending wounds or staving off poisons, while the pebbles are used for distractions." Her eyes, bright gold, flickered to Nickel as if waiting for his impute. "Am I wrong?"

"N-No. Not at all." He smiled, overcome with a sense of pride for the woman. Not many could see what he carried and understand its basic functions. Lessons learned from the villagers taught him the importance of each item. Any person with half a brain could see what they were for, but naming them might take more effort. Effort that Nickel, sadly, did not have. "I never got your name, Ms…"

The woman smiled, pushing a strand of hair behind her human ear. "Sienna Khan." She shook his hand when he presented it and smiled at him when he returned to getting his gear in order. "Hate to ask, but who made your knives? They seem rather worn down."

"Constant use." Nickel eyed one of them, scowling at the long crack that now lined half the length of the blade. John would have taken care of it. He never let his weapons fall into disrepair. A good friend… if one could call him that. "Hopefully I can get a few more years out of them."

"Before you need to replace them?" Sabar asked. He ran a hand over his chin where stubble was forming. "Got a pretty good smith back in Menagerie. Not saying you should come with us. I know you're set on getting your people to Haven. You could drop by, have 'em take a look the things. Maybe make you a new set."

"They are just metal. You could get Dust Infused blades or blades made of refined Dust."

That was news to Nickel. Father commissioned the weapons. Not exactly something he had been pleased to have at the start. In truth, they had been a game of sorts back home. Nothing to do but throw knives, hike, and work. Still, Dust Infused weaponry sounded good to him. "I'll think about it."

"Don't think too long. We don't intend to stay here forever. With that unknown Grimm running around and Humans not helping, we sort of got a limited amount of time before this place goes up in cinders." Sabar informed him.

The last knife was slid into place. Nickel shut his eyes, his mind still returning to the questionable future he had. Getting the people to Haven was his job, the last noble act his father should have done. But once that was over, what then? He always returned to that line of thinking. These people offered him a chance. It was one worth taking, obviously.

"Any idea on how long?"

Sabar shook his head. "Until we got all the Faunus that wanna leave or need saving, I think this place is going to stay. But after that, we're out. Hard to make two places ours when the one we got right now legally belongs to us. Not eager to make a second place and have it be seen as a show of force."

Sliding iron into the cylinder of his revolver, Nickel nodded mutely. No point in expanding if it wasn't needed. Not with an unknown Grimm running amok. That would make things worse.

He holstered the gun, relieved to finally feel the weight of a fully loaded gun, his knives, and equipment back on his person. It made him feel naked without them or the added weight.

The tent opened up and Adam stepped in. If he was shocked by the three, he didn't show it. "We have a problem." Sabar and Sienna turned to him fully, their eyes narrowing in fear and anger. "We just got word of a convoy being attacked by Grimm. Two of the vehicles made it back. They left the third and took who they could. About twenty people ran into the woods to escape."

"The unknown Grimm?" Sabar asked, worry in his voice.

"No. Just normal types."

Sienna and Sabar chewed their lower lips in thought. There was no telling where they ran to in the woods. They'd have no way of finding them without markers or contact with them via Scrolls.

Nickel caressed the hammer of his gun, his eyes closed. "How far out from here?"

Adam tilted his head in thought. Sienna eyed him strangely as Nickel kept running his thumb over the hammer. "They were near Kuroyuri. A few hours from here by transport. We could make it one hour if we gunned it. But the problem isn't that we can get to the site of the accident, tracking them is."

"No it won't." Nickel smiled, his eyes opening. "I can track any kind of scent. I need something of theirs or just to be in the area. Anything out of the ordinary will stand out. I already have a good idea of what's normal in Kuroyuri. I've been there before. So I know the landscape."

"So you can track them if we get you there?" Sienna asked. He nodded and she turned on Adam. "Get a crew together. Make sure they have medical gear on hand. We don't know what we'll be running into. Nickel, finish getting yourself together if you have anything else you need. Sabar, I'll take charge on this one."

"I'll get a transport ready."

The two males left, leaving Nickel and Sienna alone. "Once I've located them and you get them loaded up, I have to leave. I just need to make sure that the survivors from my village get home."

"I understand."

Nickel exited the tent, not once looking back. A good deed needed rewarding. They helped him, and he felt they were owed this much. He smiled, happy to be back out in the field again. There was no place he'd rather be.


	6. Smoke In The Eyes

**Smoke In The Eyes**

_Click, snap, snap, click, click, thud… _

The sound of turbulent wind almost drowned out the sound of the team getting their gear together as they traveled in the back of the truck at full speed. It could almost be mistaken for music, which it was to Sienna as she checked over her equipment.

She was too preoccupied with other thoughts to worry about how everyone else was getting ready. Her mind was a tangled web of worry and doubt. Doubt that they wouldn't be able to track them. Worry that they'd only find corpses. If she were honest with herself, none of this was right.

Things hadn't been right for a long time. Their peaceful protests got them nowhere fast. Faster than doing nothing, it seemed. They cried out against places that refused to serve faunus, mark things at a higher price, and use them for labor at cheaper wages.

It was disgusting.

_Equality. _

That was nothing but a lie, told by people of power who stood above others. The people in charge, the ones who made the rules and never followed, created a world for the betterment of humanity by forcing them into slavery.

There had been a time in which such a thing had been thought possible. Human and Faunus working together to protect the world and gain some mutual understanding. But those times were faded, lost on deaf ears to a world that no longer wanted to listen. What choice did they have? Let themselves be consumed by a past that is threatening in its return or fight for a future that wasn't one filled with suffering and sorrow?

If things were different, the Humans would be on the bottom, but Sienna never wanted that. The first promise, the original one created by those that stood by them on a terrible night of suffering, was the one true thing she wanted: Equality.

How quickly they were to resume a lifestyle that had gripped them so.

Her eyes danced over each individual that had come to help, a need to know and make sure they were ready.

Adam, though unseen, had his eyes closed, his sword laying across his lap, and was taking steady breathes that he held for several seconds before exhaling. It was an exercise created to open his mind and senses, allowing him to feel the world around him. His aura pulsed and breathed like a living thing, connecting him to his weapon and it to him.

Fennec was going over medical gear that he had brought with him. A large pack sat at his feet, the top of it split open as he feverishly dug inside, making sure that he brought what he needed and that nothing was out of place. His ears swiveled rapidly, listening to the sound of the wind that ripped by him.

Yuma, a new addition, was tugging at the black sleeves of his new jumpsuit. He had no training to speak of, no way of preparing for the abominations they might against. But he was alert.

Nickel was checking his gun and knives over, eyeing them with concern. The bumpy road gave no chance for him to lay things out to fully prepare them for the coming storm. Sienna could see that much in him. Were they not in a vehicle hellbent on getting to the accident and on a bumpy dirt road, he would have had each item laid on a table in neat rows. Instead, he was forced to improve, pulling each knife from its spot, eye it like a jeweler inspect the quality of a gem, clean it with oils and the whetstone before putting it back in place.

Fennec was the first to know of the trouble. His ears turned in the direction of a sound. Sienna heard it too, but only after the fox. A moment later the truck began to slow down.

Almost on reflex, Nickel and Adam jumped from the back, both running around the truck as it slowly came to a stop. Sienna and Fennec jumped out last as Yuma took to the sky and landed on a large branch to serve as a lookout.

A mangled truck with claw marks and smoke lay on its side, the front of it caved in by a fallen tree. The hood was peeled back like a can of sardines, and the engine splattered with black oil and blood.

Adam moved to the door, tearing it open and peering inside just in case someone had stayed inside. He found a corpse, the face resting in a final moment of shock and horror. It was rude to leave one behind. He cut the bindings that held the poor soul in place, pulling him out and dropped him down Fennec.

Nickel moved around the back, his gun and wakizashi drawn and ready to act. He sniffed the air for signs of trouble. The oil, exhaust, blood, and bodily liquids that permeated the air and made it hard to find anything noticeable. Tearing at the tarp that covered the back of the truck, his red eyes scanned the place.

Packs were left behind, abandoned in the attack. He checked one, sniffing it in the hopes of finding a trail. Food, mints, and earthly scents was all he got. There wasn't enough for him to go on.

He jumped out of the back of the truck as Sienna looked inside, and ignored her in favor of his one task. There were dozens of signatures mixed in with the air around him. Too many to track and too many new smells for him to know which way to go. The exhaust played hell with him.

Adam stepped up to him, his hand resting on the tail end of his sword. The redhead was smart, allowing Nickel to work in peace as he got down low to the ground. He'd seen hunters work the ground in ways not possible to a city slicker. Each step they took was like an exotic dance. They moved from place to place, almost weightless, their feet never leaving a print.

But on a much smaller note, Nickel didn't act like a normal hunter. He sniffed the ground, pushed weeds from his brow as his face was mere inches from the soil. Each sniff he took brought about a new expression. And to his credit, his tail did not move. It was a sign of discipline to Adam. Discipline a lot of the newer members lacked.

Long had the newer members listened to their leader, but many fell victim to their poisoned minds. Some sought drugs, others sought violence. In either case, it all lead to the same thing: Imprisonment.

Hope was a currency to them. Those that had it spent it on things made of pride and ambition, drowning their hope in the process. Lost hope was not easily gained back. Despair, a negative emotion, brought the horrors of the night with fangs and claws. To return from the dark was a rare thing. But to come back brighter than before was another.

If his talks with Nickel meant anything, the darkness still held firm to him.

"Got anything yet?"

Adam silenced Sienna with a simple gesture. She shot him a look. He gave a sly smile as he pointed to the wolf faunus that was now a few meters away, sniffing the air in the thick grass.

The others began to group around the faunus as they watched in mild fascination to the non-member as he looked for some trace, some clue as to where the survivors had gone to.

An interesting thing to watch for sure. Like watching documentaries of early faunus in the days of old that hunted by night, searching for food when predators were less active. Odd sight as it made, true or not to the stories of history, watching it in action was completely different and almost prideful to some.

Nickel moved out a few more paces, his eyes closed as his nostrils filled with earthly scents and herbs. His tail went rigid and his head tilted in a familiar fashion to a bird looking to a new sound.

"This way!"

Adam and Sienna followed quickly. Nickel was fast, they'd both give him that. Weighed down by enough bullets and knives to fight a small war, enough pelts to keep a small family warm on the coldest nights, he move with speed matched only by a few.

Sienna heard it before they rounded the thick trees. Water. The temperature dropped rapidly as the air cooled quicker in the moisture, and the earth beneath their feet was loose and damp. By the time Adam had rounded the corner, the sight was all hers and it was beautiful.

Nickel and Adam both paid no mind to the beauty of the land, a split that was divided by a massive river that had carved a mountain near perfectly in two. Though the water was hundreds of feet beneath where they walked, the cool and smooth surface of the stone told a story of time and the might of rapid waters beneath.

Nickel turned to face them and stepped off the edge, his hands catching at the last second to the smooth rock. Adam blinked, his face a mixture of worry and fear as he rushed over to assist in helping him up. But Sienna heard it before he saw it: Soft whimpering.

Adam looked over the edge and down past Nickel. Two kids were hugging each other tightly, their frail forms soaked with water, sending them into frightened and cold induced shivers. Both looked startled to their presence, none more so than the form of Adam and his dark mask made in representation of the horrors humanity saw them as.

"Give me your hand." Nickel let go and reached for one while the other held tight to the rock. He was just a few short inches away from them, his fingers nearly touching the soaked fabric around them. "I got you. I promise."

The two children looked to him, fear in their eyes, but understanding. They rose up as much as the small cave they hide in would allow. The first one jumped, catching his hand and crying in fear when the weight of her motion threw her further back than anticipated. Nickel hoisted her up to Adam.

The second jumped a moment later once the first was taken by the masked faunus. Nickel hoisted him up, less trouble than the previous, and then scampered up as well. He rolled onto his back, both hands coiling and uncoiling as he tried to remove the cramping that came with the actions he'd performed.

Sienna and Adam tended to both, rubbing them roughly and holding them tight to keep them warm. Nickel, after a moment on the ground, got up and yanked off his thick pelt and gave it to the two.

"That should keep them warm. I'd get them out of their clothes and near a fire fast." He sniffed the air again. "A few more made it across the gap. I can smell them."

Adam glanced down at the two kids. They leaned away from him when he leaned down to inspect them, pushing deeper into the warm embrace of Sienna as she hugged them tightly. "Get them back to the truck," he ordered. "We'll press on. If we find any more survivors, we'll light a fire or something to signal you if we have trouble."

Sienna bit her lip in thought. "Alright." She picked up both of them and started her journey back. "Stay safe."

Adam gave a curt nod of understanding as he turned back to Nickel. The sight of him without his thick pelt was unsettling to him. A myriad of scars lined his arms and shoulders, most likely caused by work or the usage of his knives in training. It gave him a mysterious flavor that was not seen in his normal features.

Nickel looked around, his face one of puzzle. Adam saw his concern. "Can't make that jump?" he asked, his voice slightly raised with mirth. Nickel nodded, but he was scratching at his chin in thought, his eyes dancing to a large tree behind them. "Bridge."

Nickel stepped out of the way, his eyes glued to Adam now as the redhead moved towards the tree. He took a stance unknown to him, but watched in ravid fascination as Adam pooled his aura from his chest into his shoulder, down his arm, and into his hand. Like lightning… No, faster than lightning… Adam swung his sword and sheathed it all in one fluid motion.

The tree wobbled at the very top for a moment before gravity pulled it down. It slammed over the ravin, forming a bridge. Nickel took another step back as Adam took the same pose again, and just as before, swung and sheathed the sword in one fluid motion. Each branch that covered the top of the tree fell off to the side as a red crescent wave clove through them.

Adam admired his handiwork for a moment before he saw Nickel rush across the makeshift bridge and continue the search.

Branches lay broken on muddy tracks. Blood and sweat filled the air. They didn't travel long on their path before they came across two corpses. Their bodies were mauled and chewed apart. Nothing left for them to identify who they were. Not that they would have been able to identify them.

Nickel leaned down, his hand rubbing over the blood soaked clothing that covered the chest of the man and pulled a small trinket from it, a silver oval shaped gem. He rubbed his thumb across the smooth gem and worked his jaw. Maybe a survivor could identify the person with that and this would be enough to give them rest.

He did the same from the other corpse, pulling out a thick wad of fur bound by metal. Blood soaked as it was, it was easy to see as a tail from a rabbit or some other form of life.

Nickel pocketed them both, his eyes closed as he mourned for their loss in his own way. Adam had no words. Guilt, perhaps, but no words. Another life snuffed out before it had a chance to grow.

The two pressed on, leaving the corpses behind. Nickel remained up front, running as fast as his legs could carry him. Adam was just behind him, off a little to his side, his hand gripping tightly to his weapon. This injustice would not stand. No one else had to die.

When the wolf faunus came to a sudden halt, his tail went rigid and he crouched down low enough to hide his form within the thick brush. Adam followed suit, his breath caught when he saw what was in front of them.

A wall of wood and bone and blood. Someone had made a stand here. Made a place to call their own and to ward off unwanted guests. Grimm would care not for such wardings. Damage from fighting was evident, but that was not what gave Nickel pause.

His nostrils filled with the scent of gore, bread, meat, and most importantly, metallic saps. Saps that knew came from his home. This was the home of those that had attacked his place. But he did not detect them. They had clearly moved on, afraid of the unknown Grimm or those that might follow them.

"We need to get in." Adam told him. Nickel did not respond. His eyes were working the wall, his nose pulling in the scents around him. The redhead took his silence as a sign of naive wonder. "We need to get in there. They might have been-"

Nickel grabbed Adam and hauled him down low enough that his face nearly hit the dirt. A hand covered his mouth, but he jerked up enough to see him motion for silence. Adam blinked, his first instinct to fight kicking in, but when he saw that subtle motion, he knew that his life was safe. When he let him go, the redhead peered through the brush and saw why he'd been silenced.

Grimm.

They were hunting. They did not know a way inside the structure, but they knew they had prey on the other side. Spikes that jutted from the wall made a frontal assault improbable, but not impossible.

Nickel started to move around the wall, still hiding behind the brush. He kept an eye to the ground. Adam did no such thing. Though he followed, he dare not let one of the beasts leave his sight. He followed Nickel with his hand on the back of a pelt to make sure of where to go.

When the faunus stopped moving, Adam glanced his way. Nickel pointed to an opening, small enough for them to crawl in and get a look around, but the bull faunus did not favor such a thought. They'd have no way of knowing what was on the other side. To go in without knowledge was not a risk Adam was willing to take.

Nickel brushed his hand off, rising up just enough that his head almost poked out from behind the dead brush he took cover behind. He sniffed the air for danger and knew they were in the clear. When he jerked his head in the direction of the hole, Adam shook his head.

"No," he mouthed to him.

Nickel shrugged and crept towards the hole. Adam swore inwardly, not liking any of this. Too many unknowns. Grimm were in the area. What if they saw them while they went under? What if they got stuck?

In the short time he spent swearing up a storm, Nickel had gone under the hole and then motioned to him. Adam worked his jaw. He wasn't afraid of the unknown, he just didn't like testing the unknown.

Begrudgingly he followed and slipped through the hole. When he got to his feet, Nickel put a finger to his lips and motioned towards a set of wooden shacks off to the side. The mask wearing faunus nodded and they moved together.

Tents and small wooden shacks covered littered the land. Tracks rushed from one place to another to hide from the terrors outside.

The duo marked to the furthest tent. Nickel knocked on the wood door as he said, "Anyone alive in there? We're here to help," and then pushed it open slowly. Huddled in fear were adults and children that were a little worse for wear.

Adam stepped forward and the children began to panic. He stepped back, taking a defensive stance when the howls of the Grimm grew louder.

"Don't worry. We're going to get you guys out of here." Nickel looked around for a moment and then back to the survivors. A small child, probably no older than seven,held tightly to a smaller child and stared up at him with eyes full of conviction. "What's your name, little one?"

"Her name is Pepper."

Nickel eyed the adult that spoke with a calm smile. He got down low and reached out to ruffle her hair. She pulled back, but only just enough to see that he had no weapon, before his hand touched her head. "Pepper, huh? Brave name for brave girl." A howl alerted him that it was about to start. "Pepper, can you be brave for me? Can you watch over these people?"

No adult questioned him. They understood what he was trying to do. While adults could suppress their fear and negative emotions, children let it run rampant and without control. If they wanted to survive this, the children needed to be at peace. What better way than to instill bravery in one to make others feel the same.

Pepper nodded mutely.

Nickel stood up, his hand resting on the grip of his gun. A larger man, probably just a few years his senior, stepped out with him.

"Name's Tukson. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Nickel tossed his flint and oil to him. "Help Adam lite a fire. We have people coming to evacuate you guys, but they don't know our location. We need a signal fire."

Tukson moved moved to Adam to start while Nickel pulled out his gun.

Nickel could feel it. A hatred so pure and thick it was like sunshine soaking through his skin. Their malic… Their appetite for destruction was so potanent Nickel felt his knees shake and his mind begin to warp to their thoughts. Though he was strong willed, even the darkest of beings could tempt others with just a simple thought. Their strength was enough to make even the strongest fall to their whims.

The howls grew louder. Ripping and clawing sounded on the other side of the walls. They were hunting and everyone knew who the prey was.

Heat washed through their air.

Nickel looked behind himself to see Tukson marveling at the fire and Adam moving up beside him. "They won't be able to get to us unless we clear out the Grimm," Adam told him softly.

"I know. We're going to open the gate and hold fast."

The redhead shook his head. "We should try to lead these people away."

"Their fear will draw the Grimm no matter where we go. The only option is to fight and pray they wise up to leave. The older ones will leave, but the younger ones will be quick to the slaughter."

"I don't like this idea."

"We can't move them. Not until we clear out the Grimm. Not unless you wanna try and play decoy?"

Adam frowned at such an idea. There would be no way of knowing if the Grimm would leave them alone if they tried such a thing. Maybe one of them could run away fast enough, lure them away with negative emotion, but they had about ten people here, some of which were small kids that were frightened to death.

But… Nickel had a point. The only option was to fight. This much negative emotion would eventually attract bigger Grimm. What was currently outside was smaller and not capable of getting through. Any bigger and they might just challenge the wall.

Tukson stepped up beside them, looking at the looming gate with fear in his belly. "Plan?"

"We're opening the gate." Nickel marched on the thing. Adam shook his head and growled. It was stupid and they all knew it. But what choice did the have? "Once I do this, we have to bottleneck them here. Keep them stuck in this spot. Let them climb over their kin."

"I don't have a weapon!"

Adam sized up the man. Tukson was hardly a fit man. He looked like someone that would fall over in a simple breeze. His clothing were in tatters from time in a mine and no proper equipment for safety.

"Here!" Nickel tossed a wakizashi to him, that he deftly caught. "I want that back when this is over!" Nickel took two calm breaths. He could hear them on the other side clawing at the ground. Eyes tightly shut, he willed his strength and courage into one and yanked the latch off before making the sprint back to the other two.

There was a moment of silence as the looming gate opened. A false darkness lay in the trees with a thousand angry red eyes pointed in their direction. Like fog rolling in, the darkness rolled forward, consuming the ground and freezing it moment before the blanket covered it.

Then, as if a dam had been broken, they flooded in. Dozens of angry teeth and claws and bones rushed through the gate, snapping at them as they did.

Nickel opened fire, dropping eleven as he emptied the shells. Adam rushed forward with blinding speed, slashing and stabbing at the Grimm. Tukson was there was with him, dancing around them and weaving death where he danced. The onslaught of darkness paid them no mind, as they were little concern with three warriors facing an army. They had a prize they were after. A prize that the three vowed to stop in their tracks.

Tukson moved in and out of reach of the Grimm, the wakizashi moving like a dancing firefly as it wove in and out their forms. The blade was alive with a sickly green glow as Tukson used his aura to coat the weapon in a protective sheen and aid in its cutting ability. Each slice was clean and surgical, removing limbs and gutting them when they lurched upwards to overpower him.

But he did not bow and cow to these beasts. He slew them with a ferocity nearly matching their own. And like Nickel had told them: They would climb the corpses of their kin to get to them.

Climb them they did.

Adam moved from spot to spot, slicing the Grimm with clean cuts. No movement was wasted, no action unneeded. He was a surgeon making cuts through the darkness. His weapon, a thing of fire and steel so sharp, it cut through the darkness itself, wove a pattern of death.

Nothing could stand before Adam, for he was a fury unmatched by all. Their might was his might. He stole their strength, made his fear their fear. They feared him, but continued their charge over the fallen.

Nickel fought with a cool and calm mind. His finger on the trigger, he pulled it eleven times, dropped eleven horrors, unloaded the shells, and slid new iron into the cylinder. Each shot sounded like thunder in the night. His gun, the cannon as it was, was a weapon that called a storm with its shots. It sang a song of storms and Nickel was the eye of that storm. For he stood tall, unmoved, carrying to the creatures before him. A storm did not care what got in its path. It simply moved from one spot to the other with little thought to those around it.

The bodies piled high in the gate. Ten feet high and the beasts kept coming. Nickel and Adam fired on them with what they had.

Tukson moved back to the fire, and more importantly the screaming kids. His presence gave them pause and a sense of calmness, but the gunfire and screaming horrors did little for them. They were consumed with fear.

A scream pierced the night. Nickel felt his blood run cold as his ears tickled from the sound.

The earth shuddered beneath their feet. Tukson caught himself when he fell to one knee. Nickel reloaded his gun, his eyes narrowed on the pile of corpses that were slowly dissipating. Adam stepped back to the group, his hand gripping tightly to the hilt of his sword.

The air grew silent and the land stilled. For a moment their bodies were put at ease to the horror that had stopped its approach. Their minds knew otherwise.

A cry sounded in the night. The earth shuddered again and something snapped trees like twigs as the dead monsters were suddenly thrown aside to show a large monster that loomed over them, casting a shadow over the entire camp.

It stood twenty feet high with thick bones over its back, torso, and face. Two horns pointed forward and reached out like hands towards their forms. It was a massive lion-like monster.

Nickel snorted at it, ready to fight the creature. When it opened its mouth to roar at them, the entire body froze and it released a soft whimper before crumbling into pieces.

Tukson blinked in surprise. "That was… anticlimactic."

Sienna stepped around the black fumes of the corpses, a chain swinging in her hands and a feral smile on her face. "I hope you didn't have too much fun~"

Adam sheathed his sword. Nickel kept his gun out.

"Not at all!" Adam replied, a smile on his face. Tukson returned the weapon to Nickel, but the gunman seemed preoccupied with something else. "We got about ten survivors. Where's the truck?"

As if on cue the truck pulled in. Fennec was at the wheel, a look of terror etched across his face as he whiteknuckled the wheel. Sienna grimaced. "We got more horrors rushing this way."

"How long?"

A cry was the answer to his question.

Nickel opened fire as Fennec got out. The fox ducked back inside, his head poking out over the wheel as Nickel fired while moving. Adam saw it too. They were already upon them.

"Get them loaded up and out of here!" Nickel rushed for the far wall, firing as he did. The Grimm turned when his shots hit them.

Adam watched Nickel vault over the wall, his gun still ringing out. What few Grimm remained were easily picked off. "Get them out of here now! I'm going to help Nickel!" He rushed over to the faunus in question.

Sienna turned and started moving the survivors into the back as Yuma and a few others fell out to fight what remained behind. Once the last person was in, Fennec floored it.

_You better not die out there, Adam. Or I'm going to be quite cross with you. _

(-)

Out of the dumbest things a mind could conjure up, running away from an angry horde of teeth and claws on foot was probably up there. Leon had spoken many times about people doing dumb things back in the day. Most of those stories were dares that lead to the person being injured or getting in trouble. Usually the two were connected, but on rare occasions they were separate.

Dumb came in all sorts. Sometimes it was something as simple as forgetting someone's name or that you had a date. Other times it could be something as grand as running headlong into the night to fight its horrors with nothing but your fists and determination. But, on rare occasons "dumb" came down to doing what was right, but horribly wrong.

There was a reason why some people would say that doing the wrong thing for the right reasons was a dumb saying. What reason could possibly justify such a dumb act?

In Nickel's case; the right reason was ensuring that the survivors got away safely. The wrong thing was running on foot with a pack of angry Grimm chasing after him. No one could outrun them. Not to Nickel's knowledge anyways.

Still, a desperate and ill thought out plan as it was, it was working… Hopefully.

The power of a lie and the mind did wonders at times. A horrible act could be ignored with the right set of words. Justice could be one of those words, but sometimes it was simply the mind that could make the lie work. In this case, the lie and his mind were telling him that he was doing the right thing and that everyone was now loaded up and casually heading back to the camp for food, warm clothes, and a nice place to rest their heads.

A promising as the thought was, and in knowing it was a lie, Nickel still was left wondering if his idea was a good one.

Shame he didn't have time to think about that.

His gun clicked empty. Running full speed, he reloaded his gun and kept firing. The shots were wild and meant to lure, not to kill. He killed a few that got in front of them, eager to cut him off and cut him up.

He had part of a plan. Get back to the ravine and pray he could remove the tree somehow. That'd stop them from getting across and to him. Obviously the problem was moving it. He didn't carry explosives and he didn't have a weapon capable of slicing the tree in half at the center to make it fall in. Until he reached the spot, which he knew was coming up soon, he needed to think of a way to move it, or to make it difficult for the Grimm to cross it.

But he never came up with one.

Nickel rushed to the center of the tree, turned, and aimed his weapon. The Grimm paused in the darkness of the forest, their hungry eyes taking in his form. He had no other options available other than to run. But even that wouldn't last. The tree had to be removed.

A few of the angry eyes turned away from him. Nickel sniffed the air and stepped back when a speeding blur landed where he stood. Adam rose to his full height, his sword drawn and ready to be used.

"Get back!"

Nickel jumped back as Adam swung his sword through the tree and jumped as well. The tree buckled inward and fell into the depths below, leaving the Grimm trapped on the other side.

"I doubted you had the power to cut this tree down or move it." Adam admitted as he turned to face him. Nickel shoved him out of the way, his gun up. He fired two shots. A body hit the ground. Adam turned slowly and saw a Grimm dead behind him, Nickel's gun smoking from the fired shots. "Nice save."

Nickel twirled the gun in his hand with a twist of his wrist before holstering it. "I'll get you back to the road and point you in the direction of the camp," he told him as he started moving through the brush.

Adam followed with a snort. "Don't bother. You told Sienna you'd join after this. I assume your going after the humans you protected?" Nickel nodded mutely. Adam slapped a hand at his side, his arms now akimbo. "Why bother? They're humans."

"My final act for them. It was my fathers' job. Now it is mine. Once they're safe, I'll come back. You don't have to follow."

"It's dangerous to go alone. Like it or not, I'm coming." Adam suddenly paused and looked around. "And we don't have supplies!"

"We'll be fine." Nickel almost laughed at him when he saw the look of disbelief wash across his face. "We'll be fine, Slick. Trust me."

Adam grumbled at the name as his doubt grew even more. But given that Nickel had obviously been raised a farm… His stomach rumbled softly. He doubted Nickel heard it. It wasn't like he had any other options at the moment. There was no telling when the others would pass them by on the road or if they already had. Given how fast Fennec had floored it, he was willing to believe that they had already passed them. And if food was already on his stomach's mind and it took them an hour to get here by vehicle at max speed, there was no way he'd survive the trip without something to eat before he got to the camp.

"Don't call me that." Adam told him as he marched up beside him. Nickel laughed lightly as he shook his head, leading Adam to groan. _I'm way out of my element here. _


	7. Live Off The Land

**Live Off The Land**

"Are you sure we're going the right way?"

Nickel nodded.

Adam growled in irritation.

For two days they traveled in near silence. Nickel only spoke when it was around a campfire. When he did speak, his words were short and awkward. Adam could understand why he might be a little off. He lost everything, gained something new that he'd never experienced, yet he remained shut off from the world in his eyes.

It infuriated Adam to no end. Speaking and not being listened to was why he had opted to remain quiet in his life with the Fang. With the White Fang, Adam felt a sense of comradery with them. Some looked to him, seeing him as the savior of their kind. Long had he worked to better their lives, even if it was by stealing. Killing… He hadn't done that. Not out of anger or fear. He just hadn't killed anyone yet.

But Nickel had.

Adam could feel the hate that sometimes licked off the gunman. Nickel was of a right mind, but when they sat around the campfire, listening to the sounds of nature, Nickel's eyes would lose focus and his hatred would come off his form. It gave Adam chills.

How could someone hate so much? He lost everything, sure. Lots of people lost everything. Some found a new rock to steady themselves on, push off, and start over. Nickel had a platform, he just didn't know what to do from there.

Perhaps it wasn't hate that he felt, but a sense of confusion?

It didn't matter. They were currently two days in to this stupid trip and Adam could feel his stomach eaching away at the lining of itself. He'd heard stories of people eating Grimm in the past. Stories, embellished obviously, but it did give him pause. What would they taste life? Could you even eat one fast enough that it wouldn't dissolve in your mouth?

And how was Nickel so calm right now? That pissed him just as much as his hunger. Nickel just kept to the path, his silence being the only other thing to piss him off. Couldn't he answer his questions? He had plenty of time? Why the silence?

Nickel suddenly stopped, his hand reaching for his gun as he got down low to the cold earth. Adam followed, his hand reaching for his weapon. Nickel stopped him.

A few meters away, a bush moved. Nickel slowly withdrew a knife with one hand and grabbed a pebble from the soil with the other. He worked the pebble between his thumb and index finger, his eyes widening as he took small sniffs of the air.

He flicked the pebble a meter behind the bush. A rabbit lunged out of the bush, its little nose working to find the source of the odd noise that spooked it. Nickel snapped up fast, the knife already flying through the air as he did, and crossed the distance in three big steps.

Adam blinked, missing the entire event. One moment Nickel was crouched down in front of him, the next he was holding up a dead rabbit.

His stomach growled again.

Sniffing the air, Nickel turned and looked around. "We'll camp here."

Adam felt relief wash over him. He had been waiting for that. His feet ached from all the walking and he was sure that he was going to die of thirst soon as well. How was Nickel not suffering from any of this? Did he have food and water on him?

They both moved to grab some wood for a fire. Nickel smoked a fire into existence and Adam moved closer to it, his hands raised to enjoy the warmth it provided. Nickel then got to work on the rabbit, skinning it and pulling out would work and what wouldn't work. Adam turned away from the scene and foul smell that followed when something was cut to release it.

Nickel scowled at a gland he ripped out before chucking it as far as he could. With the fire going, he put the rabbit over the fire on a stick and sat down close to it.

"Does none of this bother you?"

Nickel blinked, looking up from the cooking rabbit. "What?"

"This!" Adam gestured to the woods, the small fire, the rabbit, and their lack of supplies. "We have nothing. Yet you aren't affected by any of it? Why?"

Nickel furrowed his brow as he reached into one of his pouches. "I've been snacking on these." He pulled out a fistful of small brown seeds. "They don't do much, not enough energy to do much."

Adam turned his nose up at the things. They were covered in dirt and looked like rocks. Nickel shrugged as he ate a few of them.

"And water?"

Nickel withdrew a small vial, hardly big enough for a shot, and sloshed some water that had formed in it. Adam stared at it. Nickel threw it to him and turned back to the fire. "This isn't piss, right?"

"Snow."

Adam looked back at the liquid before he drank it. It was cold and refreshing. Not like snow. He threw it back. "How did you have that on you?"

Nickel stopped what he was doing to eye the redhead in front of him. Adam felt naked under his gaze. There was something off about the way he looked him over. It felt like he was being judged.

Finally, after a minute of silence, Nickel spoke. "You're not used to being in places like this, are you?" Adam shook his head. "Out here in the woods, silence is your best friend. If you know where to look, you can find food. Might not be what you want, but it gives you energy. Maggots give you lots of calories. Those seeds I showed you don't have much to them either, but they work at staving off hunger since you can find them in abundance around this place."

"And the snow turned to water?"

Nickel scooped up from the snow and put it in the vial before slipping it into his pocket. Adam felt stupid right then. The body heat he naturally produced would slowly melt the snow and turn it into water. Trying to eat it how it was wasn't good for your health in the cold.

"I figured you had some experience being on your own out in the woods." Nickel checked the meat. It was close, but not close enough. "I learned to live off the land at a young age. Father taught me to hunt, but neither of us knew how to really skin an animal. We can get enough meat off it to survive, but obviously a professional can make something like this give more than what we could."

"They also have the tools we don't have."

Nickel nodded in silence.

Adam adjusted his mask when he felt it begin to slip.

They sat in silence again, both watching the fire while Nickel would occasionally check the meat. Once he was satisfied with it, he pulled it off and gave half to Adam where they ate in silence.

The thing was bitter, lacking seasonings and other things Adam had grown accustomed to. There were days in his youth that he had buried under guilt and sorrow to hide where he ate raw rats and lived off stagnant water. He could still taste the iron that was in it from time to time when he drank. The cold nights were worse for him back then. Newspapers, soiled cloth, and wet cardboard boxes had been a life for him growing up.

When he was finally old enough to escape that hell he never looked back. His eyes were only ever looking to a brighter future where justice was given. Nights back then were dreams of food and warmth, something he had never really received. But when he had it, he didn't want to let it go.

Yet, here he was, sitting in front of a campfire, no supplies, no sleeping bags, and just the two of them. Those dark memories surfaced, but he squashed them down as best he could and remembered the new life he had. The better one. The best one.

"Why did you join the White Fang?"

Adam stared at the gunman. Nickel kept his gaze on the dancing fire. Adjusting his mask again, the redhead stared into the flickering flames. He could hear his younger self crying as hot metal was pushed against his skin.

"To ensure what happened to me doesn't happen to anyone else." Adam touched his mask when a burning sensation washed across him. "When I was little… When I was too weak to do anything, I suffered a lot. I wanted to make sure that no one else had to go through the same thing I went through. It wasn't right, but the law said it was."

"I've never known the suffering of our kind. Father used to tell me stories about my kind though. Said that our history was bloody. He didn't fight in the war. Too young. But he told me stories about it that his grandfather had told him. Said it wasn't just bloody… It was something else. Something so dark that it cast a shadow over darkness itself."

"Sounds about right. I remember those stories. Dark times. I'd rather not think about that. Any other tricks you got to surviving out here?"

Nickel chuckled. "I got a few. But in order to do it, I need some supplies. I know we're coming up on their last camp. I can smell their cooking. Wendy was making stew again. Father and I learned how to make it better from…" He froze and his face contorted into a look of worry. Adam reached for his sword. Nickel shook his head. "One rule of the land is that not all life is dangerous."

Adam slowly turned his head just enough to make out a gray tail that slinked behind a bush. A pair of blue eyes looked out from within the foliage to the fire where the light barely reached it.

Nickel broke off a piece of the meat, rolled it in his hand, and then gently tossed it to the bush where it plopped down in front of it. A moment later a snout moved out and tentatively sniffed the offering before its tongue wrapped around it and yanked it back to the safety of the bush.

Adam looked back at Nickel, but stilled grabbed his sword for safety.

"Not all things will kill you. It's just looking for the blood it smelled. Chances are it's a loner. Cut off from its pack. Poor thing."

"It won't eat us in our sleep?"

"No. It's just here to investigate the blood." Nickel yawned and put his back to a tree. "Don't be surprised if it comes closer to the fire for warmth during the night. It might saddle up to you if you're lucky."

Adam doubted that he'd be so fortunate. Not that he wanted a flea covered mutt to lay on him, even if it would provide more warmth through the night. It could go lay with Nickel for all he cared.

(-)

The bite of the wind tore at Kali's bare shoulders. She pulled the thick coat over and rubbed them for warmth. There was work to do.

The last group of survivors had made it safely two days ago with stories of fire and blood. But they spoke in their stories of two who stood against an army of darkness, gun and sword raised in protest to the night, and beat them back. It was a harrowing tale of action and adventure any child would love to listen to.

But it did give her pause. Though she smiled when the kid, namely a small girl named Pepper, spoke about them, she always made sure to mention that the gunslinger had asked her to watch over the other children. A proud moment for her and one she vowed to do.

There were others that wanted to give them praise for their assistance, some even asking to join in the hopes of working with them.

From her spot in the camp, Kali could see two new faces that were being led around by Sabar and Sienna, both of which were gesturing to the wall and giving small orders to them. One of them was a man half the size of Sabar, a purple tail swaying gently in the breeze, the other a man twice his height with claws.

When Sabar pointed, he said something, slapping the smaller one on the back in good nature, and nodded. The two ran off, eager to do whatever job they had been assigned. Kali moved forward, joining them and smiling at the two.

"New recruits?"

"Too gungho." Sienna put her hands in her pockets, shivering when the wind kicked in again. "No word on Adam and Nickel. A team came back saying they saw tracks heading away from the camp. Two pairs. Gotta be them."

"Nickel did say he was going to make sure his people got to Haven before he came back. Not a small trip. Could be a week or two before we see them."

Kali's ears perked up at that tidbit from Sabar, but she kept quiet.

"I shouldn't have let them run off."

"They'll be fine. We've had the roads very secure between here and there. If anything, we need to worry about what we're going to do with so many people. We're overcrowded and we need the ships to return to take those that want to leave with us to Menagerie." Sabar gestured to the crowded tents.

Kali bite down on her lower lip. Part of her wished this had been more thought out. In the beginning it was nothing but a rescue operation. It was still that, but not a lot of people wanted to leave their homes behind and start over. Yes, they came with them, but that was because the only option was death if they stayed. No one wanted to die, but no one wanted to start over either.

If Mistral would do something none of this would have happened. What were they thinking not sending someone in to deal with the threat? Just thinking about it made her blood run cold. She had not laid eyes on the monster, but the stories were enough to give her chills.

They're peaceful protests had worked wonders, just on a slower scale than what she would have liked. What had once been a noble promise and fresh start had turned into a prison and false hope spread by those that made the promise of a better future.

Menagerie was a lot of things, but a paradise and free land it was not. The rest of the world had attempted to cage all the Faunus there in the hopes of shutting them up and making the world forget about them.

That wasn't the life they wanted. Yes, they made due, but it wasn't what they wanted. They wanted to be equal, to live side by side with other humans in other lands. Atlas was one of the worst, but it was doable. It was just all wrong. Vacuo didn't care either way and Vale had been a good promise with bad people too set in their ways to do much in the way of change.

Ozpin, Beacon's Headmaster, had made great strides in improving their lifestyle there, but it wasn't enough. Ironwood, Atlas's Headmaster, saw their potential as soldiers, but otherwise did little in the way of change. Leo was a joke of a Headmaster at Haven and did little in the way of help, but he was a Faunus, and thus his school was deemed more noteworthy to Faunus as well.

It all boiled down to too many people of the older generation still being in power and making sure that their young understood they were above the Faunus because they were just animals. People like the Schnees' were some of the worst, but they only ever used them as cheap labor. They never forced them to leave a place of business just because they were a Faunus.

In Kali's eyes, this was a fight that needed to be fought, no matter how drastic their actions became. If they wouldn't sit down and talk like civilized people then perhaps they simply needed to…

She shook her head of those thoughts. Dark and true as they were, it would only serve to show the Humans that they were right in their judgment of them.

"We'll make due with it." Kali put a hand on Sienna's shoulder. She tensed, her anger showing, but not coming to full. "We came and did what we needed to. Saving our kind and anyone else along the way. This should show the world that we are understanding of their pain and want to help them, even if they won't do it for us."

Sienna took a calming breath, her eyes shut as she raised her head. "I just wish that the Humans could be more understanding."

"Don't worry. One day, maybe not during our time, but they will come around. If we can't do it for ourselves, then we need to be guideposts for our children so that they don't have to struggle as much as we did. It's not fair to leave such a thing to the next generation, but we can lessen the burden along the way."

Sienna said nothing, but the message was clear. She didn't want to wait or leave this problem for the next generation. It had to be taken care of during their time.

Kali started walking back to her tent as she stifled a yawn. "Try to get some sleep," she ordered.

Sienna gave a mute nod as she turned back to the gate, Sabar was already heading for. Despite Kali's orders, sleep wouldn't come for her. Too much was on her mind. Namely, Adam and Nickel. She hated herself for letting him run off to lure the Grimm away and allowing Adam to chase after him.

There had been no other option, but still, it plagued her. If they died out there, it was her fault for not stopping them. In her eyes, she'd be a failure to their race for not stopping two brave souls for putting others before themselves.

_Hurry back you two. _

(-)

Adam awoke with a start and reached for his weapon. The cold air hit him hard and he felt the fabric of his clothing crunch as he moved. Awake and alarmed, he looked around, searching for the noise and fear that woke him.

After a minute of searching his eyes fell upon Nickel. A large wolf was laying against him, snuggled close enough that he almost mistook it for the pelt he wore. Nickel's calm breathing was a good sign to the redhead, but the wolf was not something he liked or wanted near him.

Alerted to Adam's minor panic attack, the wolf yawned and looked around before it noticed Adam had awakened and rushed off in search of safety. Nickel was jostled in the entire thing and snapped awake with a simple yawn as he stretched.

"...orning…" he said through another yawn.

Adam looked around before he felt his stomach not comply with his earlier actions. He sat down, his sword still in hand, and grumbled irritably as his body threatened to expel what little food he had for energy.

"You alright?" Adam waved his concern off with a nod. Nickel sniffed the air as he slowly got to his feet. His eyes darkened for a moment but he let it pass. "We need to start moving soon."

"Right… Food?" Nickel withdrew some of the strange seeds again. Adam reluctantly took this time and started munching on them. They were bitter and hard. He wanted to puke but willed it down. "Which way?"

Nickel turned and started walking, his hand on his gun. Adam followed in silence. Another day of endless walking. Another day of endless silence. Yeah, he was going to have fun. What he wouldn't do for a functioning scroll right now with music.

Knowing he was in for a long haul with silence again, Adam started looking around to hopefully see what Nickel saw in the land. Finding tracks, even the ones they left behind, was easy enough. But how did you know their freshness? How could one judge that? And what sort of seeds were these things?

He scanned the trees in hopes of seeing something like them. They were spruce trees and he didn't see seeds on them.

Nickel reached up and grabbed something from a branch, raking his hand down it and leaving the branch behind.

Adam picked it up and examined both it and the tree for some clue to what he took. Upon closer inspection of both, he saw that it bore the same seeds he had in his hand. But it wasn't a spruce tree. It was something else.

He grabbed a handful and pocketed them before turning and catching up to the gunman. Nickel didn't break his stride. Prick. Was he trying to leave him behind, or did he have a wild thought that Adam knew these parts? He couldn't even recognize anything for miles. It was just trees for as far as the eye could see. Boring, really. Who would want to live in a wooded area like this?

The wind whipped through the woods and Nickel came to a stop, his head up and sniffing the air.

Adam watched with half-lidded eyes. How was his nose that good? That made no sense. Was it his Semblance? That was a rather pathetic one if you asked him. Super speed was up there with bad as well. He could run circles around others with ease all thanks to aura enhancing his abilities. Same could be said about strength as well. It was just a joke to him. If Aura could do the job as well, then a Semblance like that was rather pointless.

Of course, on the flipside, it did mean you weren't burning through aura that fast. Aura was rather versatile, but it had its limits. Why waste it on massive strength if you were slow? It could heal, shield, and even empower your weapons.

The thought of the use of aura brought his mind to his sword. It had been with him for so long that he didn't know when he got anymore. Well, that was completely true. He knew when he received it, he just didn't know why it had called to him of all things. It drew strength from him and he the same.

Since the practicality of dust had come into use some fifty years ago to supplement weaponry, some people had forgotten how to channel the elements within the weapons. Not many had ever been gifted with the knowledge of aura usage and how it could affect weapons like swords and such, but they had an idea. They just couldn't use it in a way that was beneficial to them.

Adam used his sword for his Semblance by taking kinect energy from the attacks it gave and received, then stored it for later use. As long as he could hold it in, which wasn't incredibly long, he could save the energy for a massive attack or smaller, lighter ones.

This was just one way to use your aura with your weapon, but there were others that could use it in different ways, like simply enhancing the cutting power of the blade or holding it together longer to ensure that a damaged one might see you through a fight.

There were other ways that dust could be used, but it was beyond Adam's ability. He would like to learn, but he couldn't think of a single use it would give him. Why would he want a coat that could suddenly combust into fire? That was just a hazard to his health. Sounded fun though.

Nickel came to a sudden stop, his nose working again. His tail went stiff and he suddenly started to run. Adam chased after him.

They ran for about ten minutes before they came across a small camp with tents still thrown up. Packs were scattered around and few torn into. Nickel sniffed the area as he looked around, his hand on his gun as he moved silently through small camp.

Adam looked around, checking the tents that had stayed upright for survivors. "Empty," he told him. Nickel didn't respond. He grew worried as his stomach gurgled when his nose picked up the scent of food. A small fire and kettle had been left unattended.

"Grimm..."

Adam took hold of his sword on that.

Nickel moved from tent to tent, shaking his head when he found it empty. He worked his jaw in thought. They weren't that far away from the docks. Haven was close. If they could get to one of the villages by the sea then they were right as rain. They'd be fine and this job would be over.

Reality was though, there was no telling when they left. The fire had been dead for some time, the food cold, and tents left abandoned in a rush. They could be hours away from the camp or days.

They were close to the location though. That much he knew. He could smell it.

"What's the call?"

Nickel started staring at the earth. Adam turned away from him to hide his discomfort. The silence was the thing that annoyed him the most. But, he knew Nickel wasn't ignoring him. Far from it. In all actuality he was probably thinking and looking for something.

Knowing it might take a while, Adam turned his senses outward. There was something out there just beyond the scope of his normal senses. He could feel it. A pressure was building in the back of his mind, warning him to something unseen.

The rustling of earth and grunting yanked him away from the strange sensation as he found Nickel on his knees digging at the earth. Adam stepped up beside him and watched with rabid interest as the faunus laughed when his fingers touched a hard fabric.

From the ground he pulled a burlap sack from the ground. He checked the inside of it, smiling as he pulled out some bread and tossed it to Adam. The thing was cold to the touch and hard, but Adam still ate.

"They buried it?" he asked before taking another bite.

Nickel threw the sack over his shoulder. "Keeps it cold and makes it hard for predators to find." He took a bite of the bread, savoring the taste. "They're almost there. I can smell the ocean from here."

"Are we good to turn around then?"

Nickel shook his head. "No. I won't go back until I know they're at Haven."

Adam sighed explosively. "Why do you care so much about them? Humans have never anything good for us! You hardly know anything of us." Nickel flinched at Adam's words.

He was right… Somewhat.

Their history, their suffering, was lost to him. He only knew what he had been told, not that he had really ever asked. His days were spent working and training with no end in sight. Leon had done many things to aid him, but give him something to fight for wasn't one of them. Many nights he had wished to join the White Fang, believing that they were in need of a Noble Man much like himself in those dreams.

But they were only dreams.

He was no Noble Man. He was a storm. A terror to be avoided. Storms could not be stopped, only weathered. They could not be killed. A man could be killed. Not a storm. There was no righteous intent in his mind, for it bore only ill thoughts.

Justice had been the biggest thing his father taught him, but it was also the biggest lie he'd ever heard. There was no justice in the world. People of higher power created rules and laws to make the world in their image while breaking the laws they created to keep those without power in check.

Leon had hated those people. Hated them enough that at times Nickel could hear him muttering curses in their name.

But that sense of right and wrong has always been a thing of conflict within him. He had enough sense to know that his actions, right or wrong, would be terrible in the eyes of others. If he stole food to give to a starving person, he was a hero to that person, but a villain to others.

"Because it's the right thing to do, even if it feels wrong." Nickel started walking, his tail low to the ground.

Adam bite his bottom lip at the sight. This was a noble deed. It was right for Nickel to do this. Ghira would be proud to know that they did this for humans. Really, he would. That man preached peace like it was water from the ocean. He cared not for violence.

He glanced down at the sword at his side in wonder. If things had been different from the start for him, where would he be now? This path was not one so easily walked. The line between good and evil was so very thin.

_Which side am I really on… _


	8. Existence-Asserted-By-Violence

**Existence-Asserted-By-Violence**

Kali rushed to the large gates when word began to spread of odd sightings. The head guard was already there speaking with a few others to secure the perimeter and make sure they were secure. A few more days. That was all they needed before the boats would arrive.

But time wasn't on their side anymore. It ran out the moment a team came back reporting Grimm tracks that matched the one they were saving people from.

That cursed creature was near. Why was it so close now? She didn't doubt that people were having ill thoughts, but to have enough to cause Grimm to show up was just absurd. While believable, she doubted that there were enough people to cause it to show up.

So it was hunting.

What were the honest chances that it found them purely by chance? They were well fortified and near the coast with a thick treeline to protect them from prying eyes. Grimm did live off destroying humanities creations, but even that had its limits.

"What's it look like?"

Sienna shook her head. "Not good." She gestured to a few injured people. They were working with medics at the moment. "It's not the same thing that we've been running from. Something else is out there. New type, most likely."

Kali shut her eyes. That was the last thing they needed. Another _new _type was beyond terrible news. If that news spread that another type was chasing after them or just in the area, then it would cause mass hysteria. That would only invite more Grimm to their location.

"Can you keep it under wraps?"

Sienna shrugged. "Something like this?" She looked back at the wounded men and women. "I think it's going to get out sooner or later. I'd rather deal with it sooner, rather than later to be honest. Force it to fight us on our time, not its."

"Easier said than done."

Sienna conceded to the point. Kali might not be a physically strong woman, but she was a smart one. Give her enough time and she just might come up with a way to fight the unknown monster lurking around their doors.

But that was one fight she didn't want to fight. No one wanted to fight it. Not even Sienna.

"Any word on Adam or Nickel?"

Sienna smiled. "We picked up their tracks on the way back. A team reported it. Said something about them being in a hurry. I think they're running from something. Probably that thing or just trying to throw it off our scent." She raised a hand to silent her superior's wife. "Already sent out a few teams to pick them up. Hopefully we hear back soon."

Both turned to the forest as faint echoes sounded in the distance. Their ears twitched as they waited for another sound like it. When nothing came, Sienna looked to a pair of guards and motioned to head out.

(-)

"What is this stuff again?"

"It's Old Man's Beard."

Adam examined the odd brown moss they had been plucking from low branches and brush for the past ten minutes. It made starting fires easier, something he had never known.

They had made good pace for the last few days. Nickel had insisted on traveling at night and sleeping during the day. He made the change because the nights were getting colder and if they traveled at night, they were less likely to die in their sleep.

For once, Adam put his trust in the reasoning behind the request. And it had helped him greatly. Two days of sleeping under starless nights with little warmth had done him very little in the way of getting sleep. Granted, sleeping during daylight had not been an easy feat, but he had achieved it.

Stuffing another batch of the oddly named moss in his pocket, Adam saw the sun through the trees and suddenly came to a sudden realization. "We're back near the roads?" he asked.

Nickel nodded. "We're not that far off from the campsite. A few more hours of travel and we'll be there." Nickel stopped suddenly and crouched down low. Adam dropped and snuck closer to him. The teen was staring straight ahead, fingering a pebble.

_Food? _

Adam tried to peer through the thick brush but to no avail. He could see nothing but white snow and dark browns.

Nickel turned to face him, blinked twice before pushing ahead, his form still low. Thankfully, the mask wearing Faunus understood what he meant when he blinked, and followed as silently as he could. It was another twenty meters before he could hear slow and steading breathing from up head, and another ten before he caught sight of some antlers.

He dropped the pebble suddenly and turned to his right slowly, his eyes squinted one something in the distance.

Adam looked in the direction Nickel was looking, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. He could see the Elk in the distance still grazing through the snow. Nickel got up and marched in the direction he was looking, his hand drawing his gun from the holster. Adam grabbed his weapon up, making ready for a fight.

Nickel stopped and stared down at a patch of upturned snow. Slowly, almost cautiously, he moved the snow and stopped, looking away when he saw a patch of pink flesh. Adam glanced down at it and it took his tired mind a moment to process what he was staring at.

"A hand?"

Nickel pushed the rest of the snow of the person and revealed a male Faunus. A guard that had traveled with them. A single hole was in the center of his head. Adam looked from the dead Faunus and then to more random mounds of snow. There were at least another ten mounds.

"Bandits?" Adam asked quietly.

"We're clear. They're not in the area." Adam was unbelieving in his words and started looking around for something out of the ordinary. "They're moving to the campsite. We need to move quickly. These are about a day old at best."

He holstered his weapon and rushed through the trees. Adam held his ground for another ten seconds before following. Strength surged through his body and hatred was the fuel. There would be a reckoning for this.

The two ran for an hour before they came to the wall. Muscles burned. Lungs full of lead. Adam stared at the breached wall where something had smashed through it. Tire marks made it clear a vehicle had been responsible.

Adam moved to the breach and was pulled back by Nickel. Before he could speak, Nickel drew a knife and shoved him back while flinging it with a simple twitch of the wrist. A body fell from above and someone grumbled something above.

Nickel hastily grabbed the body and dragged it into the nearest brush, leaving the legs visible. Adam followed when he heard the speaker from above grumble and start moving. A moment later a large male in leather clothing walked out with a sawoffed shotgun on his shoulder.

"You slip up there?" He scoffed and moved to his downed buddy to kick his shin. "Get up, Hank."

Nickel moved around and drew his gun. Adam tightened his grip on his weapon and made ready to slay the man where he stood.

"Hank? You alright, buddy?"

The soft click of a gun behind him had him spinning around, gun at the ready. Nickel grabbed the barrel and brought down the butt of his gun down on the forehead of the man. Adam sheathed his weapon and looked back up at the tower. He couldn't see anyone up there and made a move to the breech.

"No." Nickel told him. "Grab the other one. He's not dead." Adam took two more steps. "We need information. I don't smell a lot of blood. They're keeping them alive. Grab the other one." Adam's weapon shook in silent rage and protest. "Adam. There will be a counting for this. But if you rush this, more people will die that don't need to. Grab the other one."

Adam bolted through the breach.

Grumbling a curse, Nickel glanced up and scampered up the wall, tossing a knife and drawing his revolver as he came across three more humans. He fired his gun twice. Center mass. Three bodies dropped and he snatched a rifle from the ground to take aim and follow Adam.

Nickel dropped two more humans with the rifle before he suddenly jumped back, abandoning the rifle in favor of his revolver and taking aim at a woman with short brown hair and icy blue eyes. In both hands she carried two crescent shaped blades, each with a ring-shaped center and large outer blades.

The unknown woman smiled at him.

Several men and women showed up, all armed with varying blades. No guns.

Nickel fired over his left shoulder one-handed, grabbed a knife with the other, spun, tossed the knife, killing two people in the process, brought his gun up and fired again, killing a third attacker that was rushing him from the front, and planted his elbow into a fourth that came out from behind the third. The Faunus fought to keep his footing while bringing the gun up under the chin of his attacker. He fired once, exploding the head of the man and taking aim at another rushing man on the wall. He drew another knife and flung it with all his might, catching him in the face.

The woman watched in almost pure appreciation to his quick work of five people in short order without hesitation as more bandits came out to try and deal with him.

Nickel emptied the gun, flourishing it as he slammed more lead into the chamber while ducking to avoid a sword swing that would have cleaved his head from his neck. Pivoting on his heel, he fan-fired the gun, catching three of five in the chest and dropping them dead on the ground while the others rushed him with little concern.

More came for him, rushing the wall to try and cleave him apart with rusted weapons.

Nickel jumped off the wall, firing twice as he came down on a larger man in armor, crushing his skull under boot for added insurance on his death. He rolled forward, avoiding a bolt from someone further away. Gun raised, he fired once and dropped the crossbow user with a well placed shot to the head.

The unknown woman appeared in a flurry of steel, a sickening grin on her face.

He twisted in the air, turning just enough to avoid her swings, land, twist on the back of his heel, aid and fire at another man approaching from behind. THe woman gave a moment of pause in seeing this, stopping short from pulling the trigger on her weapon when he twisted around, pointed at her and fired once. She ducked just in time to avoid a clean shot that would have struck her between the eyes.

Nickel reloaded his weapon, slowly, methodically, almost as though he was waiting on something or simply judging her. When the weapon clicked shut, he stood a little straighter, his eyes were alive with fire, and his breathing slow and steady.

_He's at home with this, _she surmised.

Gun pointed at her, she felt no fear. No hesitation. Just pure resignation from him. He would kill her if given the chance. There were no words. Nothing to say but the song of gunfire and blood.

Who was this Faunus that stood before her? Challenging her to a duel to the death? One that stood with no fear in his eyes.

Nickel pulled the trigger, forcing her back as she felt his shots get closer to hitting her. Nimble as she was, she couldn't evade forever. He'd tag her eventually and when he did, she held no illusion that he'd end her on the spot.

His firing stopped focusing on her and turned around sharply, weapon drawn and fired. A shadow darted along the wreckage of homes and vehicles until it was on him, jumping out of the ground with a spin kick, knocking his weapon away and forced him back.

Nickel rolled along the ground, yanking a knife from its holster as both humans rushed him. The revolver was ten meters away but they were fast enough to get on him and forced him away from the weapon. One kicked him hard in the ribs while the woman tried to take his head off with her weapon which he avoided deftly with a roll.

Once on his feet, he tossed his knife at the shadow man as he started to slip again. Nickel wasn't having that and grabbed a chunk of burnt timber. The man never saw it coming. A powerful swing from the makeshift weapon caught him in the face, knocking him out cold when it broke across his face.

The woman rushed him to stop him from killing the man.

Too late.

Nickel crushed his throat under boot and grabbed both her wrists as she swung them in a wide arc. Exhaustion hadn't taken its toll on him. Not yet. But it was nibbling away at the edges of his strength. Strength that the woman could see was waning.

The woman planted a knee in his chest, breaking the stalemate. She took aim and fired. Four bolts of yellow energy sailed through the air towards the Faunus. He leaned to the side, taking only a single bolt to the left shoulder.

He spun and feigned a fall, rolling at the last second and snatching his gun up in one fluid motion as he rose to greet her, barrel presented and his finger already working the trigger. A clap of thunder echoed out and the woman wasn't fast enough to dodge the round, taking it in the right shoulder when she tried to avoid it.

Nickel scowled when he pulled the trigger again and heard the click of an empty shell.

She rose sharply, weapon pointed at him and fired a red bolt of energy towards him. He jumped to the right and avoided the crimson bolt, snapped up like a professional tumbler, charged through a small hut while reloading, stopped, turned, and fired at a shadow that was darting around. A whimpering cry sounded and Nickel twisted sharply, knife now in hand. Like clockwork he cut the end of the tent, then turned and left through the original entrance. Gunfire sounded at the spot he cut.

Running out of the tent, he turned and fired blindly at the back of it. Screams echoed over the sound of gunfire. Nickel reloaded the gun and waited.

The woman stepped out from around the corner, her face covered in blood. Her ire was noted, but not his concern.

"You're not that bad," she commented finally, her weapon slowly raising with her one good arm. Nickel said nothing. "You'd make a good bandit. Or Huntsmen. Can I have your name?" The revolver came up slowly. She didn't flinch. "It's a shame to kill you. Someone as strong as you…?" She shook her head. "You are something different."

Slowly and with purpose, Nickel moved the gun to the right of the woman in an arc until he was about forty degrees to her right and was no longer looking at her but towards the spot he was aiming.

The woman stared at him, her brow furrowed to a point it was almost knitted together. He squeezed off a round and her eyes went wide with realization.

Slowly, her eyes turned in the direction of the shot. A body dropped from thin air, a bullet in the head. When her eyes turned back to Nickel, she felt a chill run through her body. The gun returned to her face.

"My name is Vernal," she informed him. He was indifferent. Vernal could respect that. A man who didn't care about the name of the person he fought was unique to her. She liked him.

A hut exploded outward. Nickel barely had time to react to the sudden blast of timber, let alone the form of Adam sailing into him. They collided together, ending up in a heap on the ground, but recovered almost a little too quickly for Vernal's liking as she opened fire on them.

Adam was the first to his feet, his weapon out and blocking the shots without fully leaving the sheath. Taken aback, Vernal backed peddled a moment when he looked ready to rush her, only to have Nickel push him aside, gun raised and already squeezing off rounds, forcing her back for safety.

A sword materialized between them, aiming for Adam. Nickel kicked him out of the way and took the blow in his stead through his thigh. The sword fully emerged from a red and black swirling object between them and out stepped a woman in a red and black outfit, long black hair, and a Grimm mask.

The new arrival looked down at her weapon that was still in his thigh and yanked it out. To his credit, he didn't cry. Instead, he raised his weapon, pointed it right at her face and fired. The bullet ricocheted off an invisible field of aura, leaving not a hint of damage.

"Nickel!" Adam yelled as he got to his feet and rushed to push the woman back.

Nickel's eyes snapped to the right, behind the new woman and towards the ground. He fired his remaining bullets and reloaded.

The new woman turned sharply to his shots and backed up with her weapon ready to taste blood.

A dark miasma rose from the soil, turning the ground a sickening purple. Grass wilted, turned yellow, and died. The ground cracked and dried before their eyes. A three-fingered hand emerged slowly from the soil, which had once been farm-land soil, now reduced to desert sand.

Black smoke obscured a creature of teeth and bone, leaving only a humanoid face visible and a forked tail. It stood ten meters high and when it took its first breath, the very air left the world around them, replacing it with emptiness.

Adam dropped to one knee clutching at his throat. The new woman stepped back further, her hand holding the hilt of her sword tight enough to draw blood. Vernal dropped her weapons and reached for her throat, her face going blue. Nickel touched the side of her face, his eyes no longer holding a fire in them, now reduced to the eyes of a dead man.

It took a single step towards them, the earth responding as its dark miasma snaked out, creating death to the land, and a smile spread along its horrific face. When it exhaled the breath it took, the trees answered with a liturgy of howls.

"Vernal…" the woman gasped out, her hand now going to her throat. She had no more words as she turned and swung her sword. A black and red swirling object appeared behind Vernal as the woman made a mad dash for her companion, grabbing her and hauling her through the object she created.

Or she would have.

An Ursa of a titanic size crashed through the camp and forced the mask wearing woman back. It stood between the two, its red eyes staring hungrily at its target.

A dozen Grimm came up from behind the unknown type, all chittering and snarling at them.

Adam pushed himself up, his face slowly regaining some semblance of color. The unknown Grimm seemed confused and glared down at him while more Grimm began to spill through the breech and wait for some hidden signal to attack.

The Ursa collapsed over dead, its face a mixture of horror and confusion. Vernal walked out from behind its smoldering corpse, her hand holding her side. Blood spilled between her fingers as she stepped to the masked woman. The object appeared again and this time they stepped through with no problem.

Adam felt his strength begin to leave him again as he saw the portal close, leaving the two to face the army of gnashing teeth and claws.

Nickel grimaced as he got to his feet, his eyes suddenly very tired. Had Adam looked to him, he would have seen the resignation right then and there. He looked to his gun, the final gift given to him by his second father, and felt only bitterness and sorrow within himself.

_This is not the end! _Nickel felt a voice, his voice, cry out defiantly in his mind. He accepted those words. This was not his end. This was their end. He would end them. For he was more than a man. He was a storm! A man could be killed, but a storm could not. A storm could only be weathered.

With renewed strength, he raised his gun in defiance to them. To death. To his ill thoughts. And to those that would stand before him as those who would do wrong to others.

He was a voice of sound mind and body. A weapon to not be used by no man but himself. Something to rip and tear at the darkness of the world. For if one man could stand against the night, then so too could any man. Every man!

He felt taller. Titanic even. His aura swelled around him and made a barrier between him and the horrors of the dark.

Adam gave a battle cry and rushed them.

Nickel fired at the monstorious horror that stood before them. It did not so much as budge to their assault. Adam swung, cleaving through smoke and bone and flesh, yet it remained standing. When it backed away, the army behind it rushed forward, eager for their pound of flesh.

Snapping teeth and sharp claws were pushed back and cut down. They came in the hundreds. Thousands. Too many to count. Their numbers were infinite. When Nickel ran out of ammo, he switched to his knives. When his knives broke, he broke their bodies with his rage alongside Adam.

They fought together till dusk finally came upon them. The unknown Grimm watched, unmoved by their strength.

Finally, as the sun dipped beneath the ocean, the last Grimm fell over dead, slain by Adam, and only the unknown remained.

Its attack was not heard, but seen. Tendrils of black oily smoke came from its breath and snaked along the ground towards them, devouring all life and color in its path.

Both males stared at the approaching horror, neither resigning to the fate it wanted. Beaten, tired, bloodied, but not broken, they stood shoulder to shoulder, defiance on their face. Adam sheathed his sword and channeled all his strength. Nickel touched his shoulder, releasing a challenging roar as he pushed the remaining Aura he had into Adam to bolster their final gambit.

An umbra ran over their bodies, combined, congealed into one formless face of savagery and teeth. The shadow of death collided against their combined power and held strong for a moment. Adam swung his sword with such strength that the earth ruptured and the sky split clean in two. Dark clouds that had gathered parted and light shone through the bleakness created by the monster.

A scream not of this world sounded. Rushing wind took their breath away; but definitely they stood; determination in their eyes. Darkness consumed the world for a brief moment, as if shielding the stars above from the power they wielded.

Color returned to the world. The noise died down. The smoke faded and when the dust finally settled, the beast that challenged their right to live, lay dead at their feet, a hand reaching up to them, as if it could cheat death and beat them.

It died a little death.

Nickel released Adam, and stumbled where he stood. On shaky legs, both looked around, seeing more horrors just in the shadow of the trees. But they did not come. They did not challenge that which had slain so many of their kind and did not die.

Gasping for air, both stared them down, challenging them to try their luck. The red eyes vanished. The looming threat faded.

Their strength faded and darkness took them. The last thing either of them saw were rushing figures and muffled screams.

A/N

That was fun.

Couple of things to note going forward with some other stories. While I will be working on this story, the DOA/Naruto story, and Vandread story, I will be making a push to finish Unsung Hero as that is a story that is close but I have just been too busy with these stories and they have taken me away from them.

Another thing to note is that while I know people don't like OC stories, this is a special one to me, along with the Vandread story, because they are my attempts to make a story where the people in them seem real and believable. Not just random inserts that can do the impossible. Sure, Nickel can do something strange, but there is a reason for that. We'll get to that in a bit.

If there are any beta readers that wanna take a shot at these stories, it would be much appreciated. I'll be going on the site and trying to work that out. I had one and it allowed my ability to dull and become lax.


	9. Nyctophilia or Selenophile

**Nyctophilia or Selenophile**

Adam was falling through a sea of nothingness. No light. No air. Nothing to see but pure blackness.

Yet, he could still hear something near him. Far away, yet close. The voice was quiet. Just barely above a mumbling whisper. The words coming in and out and only catching a syllable or two every few seconds.

He shut his eyes and opened his ears, listening to the voice… No. Voices. There were at least half a dozen. Each voice growing louder as the sensation of the fall only grew. When he opened his mouth to call out, get some semblance of where he was, his mouth filled with the nothingness of the world around him, swallowing his voice and his air.

His lungs filled with lead. He choked on the nothingness that now filled his lungs till it burned and his eyes welled up with hot tears. His fingers turned blue and he reached out for something to grab hold of, but nothing was there.

The voices became louder, but not enough to understand. They spoke over each other.

Adam began to go dizzy as the inky black void started spinning. His mind raced to make sense of it. Nothing made sense to him.

His feet found solid purchase and he fell to his hands a moment later when virgin snow rose from the black void he stood upon. Pine trees rose out of the snow and humanoid figures began to morph from the shadows created in a source-less witch-light in the void.

Black smoke filled the air as Adam took his first step through the forest. As the figures began to fill out and take on a normal appearance, Adam sucked in a deep breath, his eyes wide as he stared up at the mouth of a large cave.

"No." He wanted to scream, but the nothingness that filled his lungs kept him from talking. He choked on it. His body refused to move by unseen hands. He thrashed against them, screamed his silent wails as he fought against it. "No! I don't wanna see this! You're not real!" Adam wanted to cry out.

Strong men hauled him off through the snow, his feet digging in as hard as he could to keep himself planted. But they were stronger. He was thrown around like a sack of spuds and after entering a rusted building, thrown at a chair. A little boy sniffled and held his arm. Burnt flesh filled the air.

He was thrown into the chair, restraints binding him down. One of them punched him hard in the face. He cried when his head bashed against the metal backing of his chair. A woman with golden hair stepped up, a metal brand, cherry red, in hand.

She said nothing. Adam whimpered like a scared child as the woman raised the brand and pressed it against his face.

Adam snapped awake, his mind racing as he reached for his weapon that was not there. His lungs burned and he felt intense pain course through his being. His vision blurred until he saw only darkness, forcing him to lay back down on the small cot he had awoken upon.

He was safe.

He was not there.

It had been a dream.

A moment of peace was given for his victory over the dark horrors of the world. He proved his existence by asserting violence upon that which craved his life. Life was a struggle to exist by challenging others to that right. It was the ambrosia that high powers loved to taste.

When his vision returned, he was not surprised to see Sienna standing over him, bandages in hand and tending to his arm.

"Nice to see you finally awake." Her voice was soft. Softer than he ever remembered hearing it as. His free hand came up and stroked the side of her face, pushing a strand of hair from her eyes and showing a set of bandages over her left one. She turned away from him, hiding them. "It'll be fine. I'm not losing it."

Adam relaxed upon hearing that. He did not have eyes for her, but she was not someone who needed to be blemished with scars. If things were better, she could have any man she wanted with her looks and intelligence. But the world wasn't perfect.

In remembrance to his own scars he touched the left side of his mask, adjusting it. Only… it wasn't there.

Panic surged through him.

"I always wondered why you wore it." Sienna wasn't looking at him anymore. A thousand yard stare lay in her solitary eye as she looked through the wall and to somewhere else. Clarity came back and it hardened. "I never would have thought you to be from the mines."

Adam sat up slowly, eyeing bandages that raced down his chest and arms. He shut his eyes, for once embracing the horrors in his mind as screams echoed within its darkest recests. Running only went so far. Shoving those voices down only made them worse.

"I'll be your light."

Adam twitched at the memory that came to the forefront of his mind like rushing waters breaking a dam. It spilled over the haunting images and angry voices, leaving him standing behind his past self that said those words.

"Nickel?"

"He's okay. He was worse than you. Stubborn guy didn't die. Amazing really. He was cut up pretty bad." A laugh escaped her lips. It was the first joyful tone to leave her since he woke. "We had hells time getting the gun out of his hand. He wouldn't let it go. Even while near dead."

"Near dead?" he repeated, fearful of his current status.

"It was really touch and go for a while. That's why I said he was really stubborn. Not sure how he survived all that. He woke up hours before you. No sooner had he woken up did he go back to work. Started repairing the wall with others and burying dead."

"How many did we lose?"

Sienna was very quiet for a moment, her eye haunted by something. Adam could see screams trapped within that solitary eye. Whatever she saw, whatever she fought against, Adam didn't want to know. But he had to know to protect them later on. To know what enemy they faced and prepare for a counter attack.

"We lost about fifty people. We got lucky. The bandits were found by a team before they could get the drop on us. Sloppy work on their end, I guess. We moved everyone that we could before they arrived. The guards remained behind to buy us time, but they didn't last long. Whoever those bandits were, they held real power. Power strong enough to blow through our defenses."

Adam could not fathom such a power. Power such as his, existed because it always had in the form of a Semblance. Some could break the laws of physicals with such ease that one might wonder if they were a God, while others were so weak in comparison that they might not be anything at all. Some would believe that those with powers capable of breaking the rules of nature might well in fact be properly born Huntsman and Huntresses. If that were the case, then Adam surely should have been one considered for such a path.

But a power strong enough to blow through their defenses with little effort made him shiver beneath the blanket in fear. And that Grimm, decaying the ground where it stood? Apathy could do amazing things, draining the very will to live right out of their victims without even touching you or seeing you. You need only be in their general area.

Perhaps it was an offshoot of one. Created by some accident, yet born with the power to will the earth to die at its command. A frightening power if combined with an Apathy. Two Grimm draining the will to live right out all life… Adam dared not think of running into another.

"We moved everyone into the forest, made them stay down and stay quiet. When we heard you two start fighting, we rushed in to see what was happening. Got there just in time to see you slay that strange Grimm. And before you ask; No. That wasn't the one we're currently running from."

Adam nodded slowly. The one they were said to be running from was all teeth and muscle. Or so the stories went from people that claimed to see it.

"How bad was I?"

"Not that bad. Few cuts. Lots of bruising. Guess you got knocked around pretty good during your time venturing around with Nickel. Speaking of which: He cleared up his mess? He's been rather quiet since he woke a few hours ago"

"Not sure. We saw them off." Adam sighed while standing up. His muscles protested instantly, but he beat them down as he started looking for something to cover his eyes. It was his tent, so he knew where to find some. "How are the repairs going?"

"Good." She became chipper with the change in topic. "Repairs are not even close to being completed, but everyone is rather happy with having at least one of their saviors back on their feet already. You two made quite the stir when you disappeared. Granted, I know why it happened, but there were some people thinking I said that to put them at ease."

"They think we abandoned them or something?"

"No. Nothing like that." She tucked a strand of hair behind her human ear and allowed her bangs to conceal the bandaged eye. "You both ran off, luring the Grimm away from what would have been their deaths. You both showed up to defend them. You both saved their lives. Not a single one of them died. The little girl that Nickel told to watch over the adults, she actually started calling him "Her" Gunslinger."

Adam raised a brow as he got up to find a mask. Didn't want people thinking he lost an eye or something. "I don't think he's a lawless man or bank robber."

Sienna shrugged. "Kids."

"Fair reasoning, I guess."

"But," Sienna crossed her arms under her bust, something he finally took notice of, "Word reached us that Ghira is almost back, and he's not happy with Haven."

"Why?"

"That Grimm that's been running around and causing all of this. It was slain a few weeks ago. It stuck its nose in some serious stuff up near Argus. Picked a fight with them and got destroyed. As a result, we're now going to be returning people that want to go back to their homes if they so desire."

Adam sighed explosively. Great. That was what they needed for their cause. Clearly, Sienna agreed.

It was no longer just a problem against Haven for failing to deal with a threat that had first appeared on their soil and dealt a crippling blow to them. Now, the focus would shift to the White Fang for taking people away from their homes by spreading lies about how the Kingdoms weren't dealing with the threat. Haven clearly wasn't. No one would deny that. But it could also be flipped to make the White Fang look back as they took people from their homes that wanted to leave, which, to the eyes of business owners that use cheap Faunus labor, would be considered abduction.

The whole thing was now just a boiling mess of a stew that Sienna, for her vaste political knowledge, would be turned on and once more dragging Faunus down further. Humans would see this as them not having faith in their Kingdom and the White Fang would gain another mark against them for jumping in and trying to save as many lives as possible.

There were no good ways out of this mess either.

They could try and point out that under Ghira, they were under orders to help secure everyone: Faunus AND Human. But, chances were the humans they rescued would turn it back on them anyways. That's what they did. That's what they always did.

If Sienna had it her way, she'd be on top and leaving the Humans to die. But Ghira believed in peace and talks. They worked, just not fast enough. Striking only went so far and right now, she was starting to get tired of it.

They just couldn't catch a break.

"Let's get you out there." Sienna finally told him, slapping him on the shoulder. "Your followers wish to see their divine savior."

Adam rolled his eyes under his mask. I am not a divine savior.

The male Faunus stepped out into the blinding sunlight. He winced behind his mask at the damage that the fighting had caused. A mass burial site was also noted in the far corner just a few meters away from the wall. The breach had been cleaned up and repairs were nearly finished. Another day of work and it would be good as new. Tents were being rebuilt, supplies and aid given to those that needed them, and guards patrolled the wall, their eyes narrowing at every sound and sight they saw.

Looking at the damage, he felt responsible for this. Had he not gone with Nickel, he might have been able to prevent this from happening. Couldn't he? Adam fought with all of his might against that unknown woman, pushing her to use true power against him. Power he didn't understand. She called upon the elements as if they were extensions of her will. When finally pressured, not thanks to their might, she summoned a swirling mass to escape through.

Yes, she beat him. But he didn't give up. And in the end: She was the one who fled.

Didn't make him feel any better about the situation.

No one came out to greet him, much to his current enjoyment.

"This way."

Adam followed at her call. She spoke, but he half listened. His mind was with Nickel and his previous actions. He wanted information on their attackers rather than to rush in and try to defend who remained. Yes. Adam could understand his logic. It was rather sound. But the truth was that if he hadn't done what he did, a lot more people would have died. People that they were trying to protect.

They crossed the burial site, both offering a moment of silence for the lost before pressing on.

Sienna stopped short of the wall, her eye roaming it as she looked for something. Adam didn't see what she saw. The female Faunus stepped up to the wall, resting her hand along its surface before continuing on.

Splintered wood lay at her feet where she had stood.

Perhaps it was the spot of the breech? It was further north though.

They walked in silence for a long time. Long enough for Adam to forget she was leading him somewhere twice. He found himself thinking more on Nickel's desire for information and why it was wrong, yet knew it to be right. Had things been different, Adam would have listened to him, and more people would have died.

Given his desire to protect life, maybe it was best left unsaid. Knowing that his desired plan would have undoubtedly killed many more would probably leave him doubting his ability to be a warrior.

Sienna stopped, forcing Adam to do the same. Just beyond a few small tents lay a small campfire and a few other workers trying to finish repairs to the wall where small-arms fire had done enough damage to weaken it. Claw marks were evident, most likely from a secondary attack by the Grimm to test their new fortifications and instill more negative emotions in survivors.

Nickel was sitting near a campfire speaking with one of the workers when Adam found him. The other Faunus was rather animated about something. Nickel seemed lost in thought, though the other didn't seem to mind or notice. Adam wasn't sure which was the case.

"...beautiful lady. Really. Truly a gorgeous woman." The Faunus turned sharply when Sienna snorted. He was a young looking man with slicked back black hair and shark-like teeth. He smiled, offering a nervous chuckle when he saw Sienna's ears flicker atop her head. "Of course… beautiful is in the eye of the beholder."

"Of course." Sienna looked down at Nickel as he looked up at the two of them. She was taken aback by the moment of resignation in his eyes. No. It wasn't resignation. His eyes were filled with sadness. "Can we have a moment with the Gunslinger?"

He nodded and got up to leave quickly as Nickel snorted at the nickname.

Once the man was well out of sight, Adam sat down beside him and stared at his former traveling partner. "You don't look so hot. Fever?"

"...No…"

Sienna sat down on the other side of him, her knees against her chest as she held them close, her solitary eye staring at the fire as it licked the air. "You're pushing yourself," she told him. Nickel said nothing. "Your bandages need changing."

"I already took care of it." He looked to the moon, a smile touching his face.

Sienna doubted he took care of them. She gazed up at the moon for a moment, and saw no joy in it.

"You're mad at me, aren't you?" Adam asked quietly. When Nickel didn't reply, he pressed further. "I did what I thought was right. I saved a lot of lives by rushing in. I thought about it during the walk here to find you. If we had done things your way, more people would have died."

"I know."

"If you know, then why are you so depressed?" Silence again. Adam touched his mask, ensuring that it was safely on. He didn't like this. Nickel was troubled. Maybe it was his actions. Maybe it was just the fact that they survived. He didn't know or care. They were alive and now they had to deal with the consequences that follow surviving such a massive battle like that. "We won."

"It's not that." He finally spoke, his eyes closed. "I gave up." Adam blinked. "I lost my light. You said you'd be my light. I lost faith in you. I was so ready to curl up and die."

Adam leaned back a little, his features somber as he processed that.

"I heard my own voice in my head cry out against that thought. My voice pulled me from the darkness. I lost faith in you because you didn't do what was right. You went rushing in for revenge."

"And it saved lives. If I didn't do that, those people I saved would have died."

"My father did the same thing and it got him killed! He said it was justice." He spat the word "justice" as though it were a curse. "There is no justice in what was done. Not then or now. I followed because I believed in you."

"Then why are you still here?" Adam's voice was soft and low. Not threatening. Concerning.

Nickel looked down at the ground. Snow began to fall when he looked up, his red eyes lost and unfocused. "I'm still following you. I don't know where to go or what to do. All my life I followed my father. He helped me when I lost everything to the Grimm before." He shut his eyes tightly to squelch the voices and pain as best he could. When he opened his eyes, there was only pain reflecting in them. His mouth hung open for a moment before he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay. I'm here for you. I made a promise. I aim to keep it." The redhead licked his lips, unsure of what to do.

"Have you ever talked about it to anyone?" Sienna asked quietly. "I know you haven't been here long, but you were alone with Adam for almost a full two weeks." Nickel shook his head. "Maybe you'll feel better if you tell us something. Anything. Even if its stupid."

There was a long moment of silence. Adam turned away from him, pulling his hand away from his shoulder. Sienna smiled while poking the fire.

"Cobalt was an asshole, but a good person." He finally spoke. "Only one near my age. Asshole he was, but a good worker. He stuck to his guns." His head was low when he got up. "Bastard child he was, but he was still a good person."

"Human?" Sienna asked.

"I was the only Faunus." Sienna and Adam looked to one another, almost in shock. "My father wasn't really my father. Second Father, actually. He adopted me after saving my first village from Grimm when I was just a boy. Don't remember much of it before him. I have flashes from time to time about a life I think I knew." He closed his eyes, pulling on the strings of memories that plagued him at night, catching brief flashes of a woman.

Sienna pulled deep within herself as she understood what he meant. Her hatred for Humans was understood and respected. Nickel did not know her. She did not know him. But right then and there she saw him as a foreign thing. A bug beneath her boot. Tame was a word that came to mind when she thought of him. Complacent was another.

"He torture you?"

Nickel turned sharply to face her, a look of horror etched across his features. "No. He never hit me. He raised me like a son."

"To your knowledge."

Nickel got up, his lips curled into a sneer. "He may have done wrong in the end, but he never did wrong by me while he was alive."

"Until the end."

Adam coughed. "Sienna, leave it." She shot him a dirty look. He was no different than she. He hated Humans just as much as any other Faunus that had their lives ripped apart by Human greed. But that did not mean he couldn't show some form of compassion to Nickel for losing the only thing he ever knew.

She backed off, stepped away from the Gunslinger as he caressed the smooth hammer of the gun. His features calmed at the touch.

"In the end he did me wrong, yes. But it was how I saw it. He wanted to chase after the Bandits that hit our village instead of taking the survivors to Haven for their safety. Revenge. That's how I saw it. How I see it." He worked his jaw for a moment, pulling his hand away from the gun. "I haven't been awake for long, but I had time to think, Adam. What you did could have gotten worse, but you were right in the end."

The redhead crossed his arms, his mask hiding his visible confusion well.

Nickel elaborated carefully. "I spoke to a few people. They said you saved their lives during the crisis. Had we done things my way, more people would have died. People that would have been on my head for wanting information."

"Yes. I suppose you're right. But, had I listened to you…" He looked down at his bandaged arms for a moment. "I got cut up by Faunus who were working with the Bandits. Maybe if we gathered more information, I would have known they had supporters like that. But we didn't." The very idea of Faunus working with Human Bandits did not cross his mind at the time. Yes, it was common knowledge that they would run with them sometimes in rare cases, but he had never seen it.

"The way I see it, both of you are in the right and the wrong." Sienna finally told them after a long moment of silence. She reached up, removing the bandage from her eye. It adjusted to the light quickly, but the pain was still evident. "You are obviously used to working with a professional. You're father, I assume?" Nickel nodded. "We do things differently. Guards we may be, but we work as a unit."

"I was trained to get information first before moving in. Forgive me for that."

"It's alright." Adam put a hand on Nickel's shoulder when his hand slowly went to his gun again. It was a habit. A scary habit. But a habit. The touch of the hammer on his thumb had a calming effect on his mind. "I'm used to rushing in. Save as many lives as possible."

Nickel remained quiet.

Adam felt something cold and detached within Nickel when he pulled his hand back from the youth. It was a terrible feeling, like his soul was rejecting something. The look on Sienna's face was enough to warrant concern when she took a step towards them, her features twisting into a look of concern.

Nickel wobbled where he stood. Adam steaded him and found him trembling and warm.

"His wounds have reopened." Sienna told him. They laid him down as a few workers rushed to get aid. Adam cut his shirt off with a knife and found his bandages soaked red. He was worse than Adam had suspected. How was he on his feet? Was his will to live that great?

"...My light…" Nickel began to slip between consciousness and unconsciousness. In those moments he saw quick flickers of a woman. Hair as dark as a night and skin as rich as the soil. She smelt of cedar and ash.

"Stay with us." Adam called. "You're light is right here. I'm here."

Fennec came and took him with two other medics. Sienna and Adam went with them. When they entered a tent, Fennec informed them to wait outside. Adam shut his eyes, worried that this was caused by their minor fight.

"HIs light?" Sienna whispered to him. "What do you mean by that?"

Adam shrugged, unsure of what it meant. He made that promise to him in the heat of the moment. Nickel was lost. Worse back then. But now, maybe his mind was slowing down to process what he lost. The mind was a powerful thing, capable of withholding pain and mental anguish for years before it finally came back.

"I don't know." Adam stared at the tent, finally unsure of what it all meant. "He said his light was gone. So, I told him I would be his light until he found his again."

"What? Like a Guiding-Light? You?" She gave a taunting smile. "You're special, but not special enough to have a profound influence on others. Admiration, sure. But not inspiration or be a profound influence."

Adam wondered if that was what it meant. Nickel's "Light" as he called it. Was he looking for something to admire? It seemed so strange. Yet, it fit him. Nickel wanted a light to look upon. Not to hold, but to see.

But the redhead doubted he could fill whatever shoes had once been the original light. He was nothing more than a man. Men could be broken. A light needed to be more than a man. It needed to be something that could not be slain or corrupted. Gods were falable and something only the weak turned to in the hopes of having prayers answered.

A light, a proper one, needs to be more. It had to be strong. Strong enough to not die. Not fall to corruption. And be a beacon that could show anyone that no matter what evils came it's way, it would still stand with a sword raised in the air to greet that evil with a smile.

Or was his light nothing more than a word used in place of another? Did he do it because he was secretly afraid of the dark? One could easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. But Nickel was no child.

Sienna touched her eye, a sad smile touching her lips. Adam didn't notice. "Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness," she confessed. "It was a box with nothing in it but emptiness. She said there was something there. I didn't see it. Still don't."

"Point?"

"I think the light is a metaphor. Not one he understands. It's just something that got lost in translation." Sienna turned to leave, wanting to return to work.

Adam stayed behind, staring at the closed flaps of the tent. _Or perhaps it is much simpler. A way to fight back against the darkness that claws at our hearts. We bear our own light within as beacons, but some are simply darker than others._

The redhead departed, eager to get back to work as well.

A/N

I wish that Adam got more time to give us more of a backstory on him. Troubled as he was, there is something fun about writing the idea of him at a younger point in his life. Unless they come out and show us what happened to his face and how he got the scar, I like the idea of it being that he, and many others, kind of got the Mutant treatment from the X-Men series. First one I think had them shown going into camps because they had powers and getting tagged.

Next thing is that after this, the next chapter should really be an Unsung Hero chapter. Still working on it and aiming to make a good return to it since it's opening up on a fight anyways.


	10. Hero

**Hero**

Adam put his hands against the worn wood of the ship, took a deep breath, exhaling only after a few seconds, and thought of a better place than here.

Ghira had finally arrived four days ago. He was met with looks of relief and worry from everyone. Injured, women and children were put onboard first. Once all the huts were broken down and supplies gathered up for the long haul, the men and soldiers were the last to board.

Four days they sailed with clear skies, calm waters, and only a slight tinge of winters' bite. It gave Adam much needed time to think about what he was doing with Nickel. The Gunslinger had yet to awaken after his collapse by the fire. With no fever, no illness to note, and no other injuries to report, the healers were left baffled as to why he'd not awoken yet.

Sienna believed it was just him coming to terms with his new life. That the old and the new were struggling for domanince. She told this in confidence to Adam, who had begun to wonder if his sudden turn for the worse was in relation to their argument. Lost faith could do that to people, as Adam had come to know from his time in the mines.

"We're eight days out." Adam didn't look at the speaker. "We already had people wanting to go back home. We've agreed to take them, and we need some guards for this. You down?"

Adam stared out over the ocean for a long time in silence, just ignoring the speaker. His presence never left. _Messenger? _Adam finally turned to acknowledge the speaker, a young man with bat-like wings dropping down. He didn't remember his name.

"What are they going back to?"

The Bat-Faunus shrugged. "Not sure. They just told me to find people. My money is on Argos. Could be wrong though."

"Probably." Adam gave him a sly smile. The young man chuckled nervously before raising a pen and paper. "I'll go. Write me down. Adam Taurus."

The young man nodded and flew to the next ship to get names. Adam watched him go and shook his head. They really needed to get Scrolls for everyone. Fat chance of that happening any time soon.

He pushed himself off the lip of the ship and started walking deeper into the ship towards the rooms. It took him a few minutes to get to the right room. The door was slightly ajar and inside he could hear someone whisper to the occupants.

Adam knocked twice and then pushed the door open gently. He was surprised to find Sienna and the little Faunus girl they had rescued in the room. The girl was drawing and Sienna was reading a book on silence. Their eyes went from him to Nickel as he lay motionless in the bed, his eyes still shut.

"Is he going to be okay?" The little girl asked quietly, looking up from her drawing.

Adam spied part of it. The image of Nickel with his gun drawn on a black monster was crudely drawn. Behind the image of Nickel was a small set of figures huddled behind in a tent. It was the drawing of their valiant stand against the approaching darkness. Other figures were being drawn above, indicating beside him, and armed with incomplete weapons.

"...Yeah." Adam finally told her. Her expression told him she didn't believe him. He smiled and knelt down to her level. "Do you really think your Gunslinger will leave you now? He's your hero, right? Heroes don't just leave. They stick around to make sure the ones they protect are protected."

"Pepper," Sienna gently put her book down and stepped around the bed to be at her side, "we should be getting you back to your parents, don't you think? You've been out longer than what was agreed upon."

Pepper huffed and grabbed up her crayons and paper. Sienna led her out and shut the door, leaving Adam with Nickel.

Adam moved to the side Sienna had been sitting at and sat down, releasing a sigh of content as he did.

Many things were on his mind. Nickel was obviously one of the things, but it had shifted to the meaning of his final words to him. What did it all mean? Where could he stay once this was all over? With him? Adam didn't have good dwellings. That was even being nice about it. Menagerie was a crowded place. His little hut was smaller than his prison back in the mines.

Then there was the fact that everyone would want to return home. Most of those places were reduced to ruins and ash. The Grimm, Bandits, and constant fighting had seen well to that. What would they return to? Why return there at all?

He knew that if they had more land under their control on the island, things would be different. Problem was being able to actually do that and keep hold of it. Ghira had, on a few occasions, made attempts at reclaiming some of the land held by the Grimm. They'd hold the land for a few months before it was suddenly overrun again. They would need more men to hold down the new location and builders to ensure that it was built quickly enough to hold people.

After a few failed attempts, Ghira fell off on the idea and scrapped it altogether. It wasn't worth the lives lost and manpower wasted on something that wasn't going to last. They had to find a way to make it last. And without support from the other Kingdoms, not that anyone really wanted it, there just wouldn't be enough resources to get the job done.

Now that they were also returning people, the very idea of expanding was out of the question. Menagerie was doomed to remain as a small island of misfits and freaks to the other Kingdoms unless something was done about it.

Knowing that Nickel wasn't going to wake up any time soon, he reached up and removed his mask, rubbing the burn mark and wincing as phantom pains raced through his body, and sat it down on the nightstand where Sienna's book lay.

_Ninja's of Love? _He reached to grab the book when he heard the door open, and pulled his hand back while putting his mask back on and stared at the body that entered. A large man that barely fit through the door entered, his hard eyes fixated on the two. Not a moment later a familiar pair of women entered.

"So this is him?" The giant Faunus spoke.

Kali nodded with an exasperated sigh. "Yes, Ghira. Adam, how are your injuries?"

Adam gave her a quick smile while adjusting his mask. "Good. Though, I'm not sure I'm better off right now. Nickel still hasn't woken up yet."

"I'm told his injuries were quite severe. How bad were they?" Ghira moved further into the room until he was towering over the two males. Adam felt small before the man, even if he wasn't meant to be. "And your injuries, Adam? I'm told they were also rather bad. Why aren't you receiving any healing right now?"

"I'm almost fully healed, sir." Adam turned his sights to Nickel. "And I couldn't leave him. Not right now. Not when he needs me."

"Adam has taken a liking to him," Sienna informed their leader. Ghira blinked in a rare show of surprise. "I know." Sienna exclaimed in fake shock. "I can't believe a loner like Adam would look after a now famous Gunslinger."

Ghira coughed in his massive hand, getting the jokes to stop right then. "But his injuries are healed, right?"

"For the most part. The remaining injuries might be psychological." Kali confessed. She moved a strand of Nickel's hair from his face. He was rather peaceful looking. "He lost everything. Felt betrayed by his father in the end. And from what little I've come to learn, he hasn't yet processed the loss just yet. He had been running since we found him."

"Yes. Saber gave me his report on the battles. Said he fought valiantly against the Grimm. What survivors I have spoken to, give thanks to him and you, Adam. You have a small following. Both of you."

Adam eyed Sienna and then Ghira strangely. "Why are you here to see us, sir?" He blurted out. Ghira huffed, but knew what he was asking. "I'm sorry. It's just… I'm not sure why you'd come to visit us. We've done nothing of a note really."

"Nothing of note? Surely you jest? An entire family praises the both of you for your actions and quick thinking. We gained more members that are willing to speak out against the Humans for their mistreatment of them. All because you two give them courage to do so. Your strength illuminated a path of them. And let's not forget your battle against that Unknown Grimm. Onlookers claimed it was a battle wills and you both proved your will was greater."

"The Gunslinger and the Swordsman, I believe they call you." Kali added. "People need hope to get them through these tough times. You give them hope. People will stay beside the people who give them that."

"As for your earlier question; I'm visiting everyone to ensure that they are well treated for the trip. It's just taken me a bit to get to this ship. A lot of injured people saw me first on the other ships, some voicing their complaint against my actions while others were curious about what kind of future they'd have on the island." Ghira ran a hand through his hair, feeling old and believing it to be graying already as he did. "With such an influx of people, reality is that we have no other locations for them. Homes are being built as quickly as possible and the soldiers are making every attempt to expand as much as well, but with the Grimm things aren't looking too good right now."

Adam felt small again. Not because of his size, but the realization on just how dire their actions made their lives now. They had to do something.

"Well, I have more people to see. Adam, thank you for protecting these people, and my wife. And when our Gunslinger awakens, give him my thanks as well." Ghira turned and exited the room with Kali following after him.

Sienna shut the door and moved to grab her book. Adam smirked. "Pervert," he accused.

"Like you don't have something to relieve your stress." She opened the book and sat down where Pepper had once been residing. "I hear waterworks work best with you." Adam had the decency to blush and turn his attention to the sleeping gunman.

(-)

Nickel rested against a thick oak tree under a star-field sky with the fractured moon hanging overhead. His eyes were closed, yet all around him he knew the landscape. The rolling hills, the tall mountain, and the four walls that blocked the village bellow from harm.

When he finally opened his eyes, a flash of something streaked across his vision, darting between the shadows and light like a dancer. He followed the flash through the forest and down into the village like a spirit being led by an elusive reaper.

His feet found gravely purchase in the center of town and the whispers of a thousand voices called out behind him. He whipped around and was staring at a home engulfed in flames.

Nickel reached for his gun and found nothing. He swore inwardly and moved to the burning home only to fall to his knees, rooted in place by dark tendrils of oily smoke. He would be forced to watch.

Cries sound within the home and flames roared like thunder in his ears. Gunshots, grunting, and dying roars called back the flames. A pair of Grimm run around another home to the left and Nickel watched them take a defensive position when a gunshot sang against the night, lighting up the world with an aura of white.

Another gunshot sang against the darkness and out stepped Leon, the Noble Man, his famous gun in hand, and his eyes hard on the darkness that was racing towards him.

Leon ran to the house and kicked in the door. He turned and fired on an approaching set of horrors and then reached inside the house. A tiny hand grasped at his large hand and a younger Nickel was dragged out of the burning house.

The world shifted and he was back on the mountain. His heart sank. He knew the spot. He'd had nightmares of it.

"Nothing ends…"

Nickel watched his near present self get shoved off the cliffs' edge and down into the rapids. The heroic last stand he pictured for his father played out before his eyes. Leon fired the gun once, twice, and a third and final time. Three Grimm lay at his feet, dead on the spot. The horde had reached him with gnashing teeth and claws. They pinned him to the ground, tore his flesh from his bone, ripped limb from limb, and when he was near death, the monster that had lead the army walked up, its head jerking left to right as it looked for the other Nickel.

Leon spat at the thing and gave it a bloodied smile.

It tilted its head and raised a single hoof. With little effort it brought it down and crushed his head into mush.

Nickel felt his world go cold before he was spirited away to a field of wheat on a small hill. He collapsed onto his backside and looked up at the fractured moon and cried for the first time since the adventure had started. Time was lost to him. It felt like he cried for hours, days, weeks even. But he knew better.

When he stopped crying, he returned to laying in the wheat field and stared up at the indifferent fractured moon. Endless questions were asked to the moon from him and not a single one was answered. How cold could it be to deny him one answer? He knew it would not answer, yet he wished it so.

"You never answer it, in return." A woman spoke.

Nickel turned his head slowly and saw a faceless woman of untold beauty. Formless as she was, she wore white silk cloth draped over skin as dark as oak, rich hair as dark as freshly tilled soil, and smelling of cedar and ash. Unnatural wind came in with the scent of ruin in its wake and tugged at the white silk she wore, revealing faint scars that lined her beautiful flesh.

"It never speaks."

"You never listen." Her voice was like listening to the ocean and rushing rapids; crashing yet soothing. "How can a speaker answer if all he does is speak? You ask, but never listen."

"What does it say? What does it ask?"

"Nothing." She faded away, leaving Nickel alone in the wheat field.

Coldness crept around him and he felt his life begin to fade. The stars began to dim and fade from existence, and the Gunslinger was okay with it. He protected his people, got them safely to Haven. Adam was alive. Sienna was alive. He was okay with dying. The world didn't need him.

"I thought you were stronger than this."

Nickel jerked up and saw Adam, the man who proclaimed himself as Nickels' Light, with a hand outstretched. He was illuminated in a red and white aura that touched the very heavens above, igniting the night sky in a brilliant blaze of red and white as stars were rekindled with his Light.

Warmth returned to Nickel as he took the hand of his Light and was pulled to his feet, tears still in his eyes.

"I have no Light left."

"Then I will be your Light. I promised you that. Did I not?"

Nickel nodded, remembering the promise. He awoke in the real world a moment later. The moon hung through the window of his room, illuminating his room and revealing Adam asleep in the chair by him.

Slowly he climbed out of bed and exited his room, making sure to not disturb his friend as he did. The scent of the ocean was strange and the air was less cold, touched with a tinge of something sweet.

Thirst was the first thing he took care of, helping him navigate the ship and find the mess hall. Several nocturnal Faunus were eating in silence. Yuma was off in the corner munching on something and making hushed small talk with another Faunus. Nickel easily avoided most of the people and grabbed up his water before heading back up top to enjoy the cool night air.

He finished his water and leaned against a pile of crates as he sat down and stared up at the night sky. His dream made him wonder if the moon would speak if he listened, but then figured that the dream had been nothing more than that: A dream.

Sitting in silence, he watched a few people pass him by without a word. Few turned and saw him, offering a silent nod in greeting before carrying about their job for the night. No one spoke to him.

The moon had reached its zenith when someone sat down next to him, holding a cup of water for him.

"You had us worried, you know?" Sienna put her back against the crate and stared up at the night sky. He took the cup and downed it, not realizing just how thirsty he had been. "But then again, you are rather stubborn from the looks of things."

"I'm not that stubborn."

"Stubborn enough not to die or release your weapon." He rolled his eyes. She sounded like his second-father. The bengal Faunus gently punched his shoulder. "Don't roll your eyes at me. I'm second in command of the White Fang."

"Sorry. You were just reminding me of my Second-Father."

"How so?"

"He was rather stubborn as well. Set in ways. I think someone said that about it once. Can't remember who, though."

Sienna eyed him carefully for a moment. Nickel didn't seem to be slipping into any sort of depression. Perhaps he had just needed rest after the long trip and constant fighting. Adam had collapsed from exhaustion after boarding the ship and even slept for the better part of two days.

Still, a better set of questions came to mind for the young woman. "You call him your Second-Father. Who was the first? And you're mother? What of her?"

Nickel was quiet for a long time. There were moments that his eyes hardened and softened. Times were it seemed as though he were lost in another world, another place, another time. When his eyes refocused, there was nothing but regret and longing within them.

"I don't remember them. It was so long ago that the earliest memory I have of anything before Leon was fire, a smiling woman, and the shadow of a man. At times I think I know them, and more often than not, I don't. Leon became my Second-Father after my village was attacked. I don't remember anything of it but the attack. He was there. He stood against the night, his gun in hand, and fought back against them. He made the horrors of the world seem so small in comparison."

"How old?"

"Small enough that I don't remember anything, obviously."

"And he raised you right? Never abused you?"

Nickel shook his head. "Good man 'till the end." He stood up, stretched and moved to the edge of the boat, watching as the sun began to break the horizon. The ocean came alive with color. Birds became visible. They were approaching land. "I think he lost his way, but found it in the end. Or at least the strength needed to keep me from dying. That final fight… He gave up, just like how I gave up next to Adam in our fight. But where Leon drew strength from me, I drew strength from Adam. I willed myself to live again and fight. To fail there would be a dishonour to Leon's actions."

Sienna moved beside him. "I see you as a tamed animal to Human needs and desire. Make no mistake, I see you as an ally. But should a day come when we have to defend ourselves from Humans, I fear you may not have the strength to follow through on your shots."

"Question me all you want. I will shoot down anyone that threatens me or those I protect."

Sienna tilted her head just enough to show her intrigue at such a claim, but hid it well enough that to Nickel it was a look of skepticism. "We shall see." With that, she turned away and made her way below deck. "You should get some rest. We'll be making landfall in a few hours. Going to be very busy."

Nickel snorted. He didn't need sleep. He'd been asleep for… "Hey!" he called out, racing after her, "how long was I out?!" Sienna said nothing, chuckling as she made her way through the hallway with a questioning Gunslinger on her heels.

A/N

Unsung Hero should be out tomorrow. Just doing some final touches at that chapter and then later in the week I should have a chapter on Allies Out There.

This was more of a filler chapter to set up events for later use. Nothing too special. Small interactions here and there for people that never fully interacted with others in the series as much as we might have liked. Ghira and Adam for instance.

Considering how big the organization is, I always wondered why Ghira took Adam and Sienna, along with Illia as guards. If anything, it had to be because they proved themselves strong enough to be at his side and protect him. And given that I was having this done near the time Adam may have joined, getting words of praise from your leader when you've hardly worked around him seemed like a fitting start to their beginnings.


	11. Uncertain Answer, Uncertain Road

**Uncertain Answer, Uncertain Road**

The warm sand on Nickel's feet was a welcomed change to the cold soil that had often been beneath him. New as it was to him, he took extreme joy in it, even if Adam had lost interest in the warm sand five minutes ago. It wasn't lost on Nickel, just not at the forefront of his mind. The new sights, sounds, and smells were taking over.

The salty ocean wasn't new to him, but it held a different smell that the other had lacked. Perhaps it was the fruits and exotic herbs that were found almost exclusively on the island. The fine wines that were distilled here mixed with the scent of freshly caught fish tinted with a warm air that blew in from the west.

It was hard to tell.

No sooner had they made it to the island did people start making requests to head back home, wherever home was for them. Some wanted to travel to Atlas and Argus while others wished to head for smaller villages in Anima or Sanus. Ghira promised that after a few days of rest, the people wishing to leave could leave and would be escorted to wherever they wished to go.

In one week they'd start heading out. That was the deadline.

Nickel already promised to help and would be working with Adam, Sienna, Ghira, and a few other members to get people back to Anima. This was the largest group wanting to return home and while they weren't as scattered, the part they wanted to return to wasn't welcoming to Faunus much.

Under orders to relax, Nickel explored what little of the island there was. What wasn't blocked off was crowded and busy with activity from merchants selling their fresh catch of the day and other wares to buyers looking for a great deal.

Adam was his handler, spending most of the time showing him good shops to spend his hard earned money at and peaceful spots that were nestled just on the edge of the walls.

Relaxing as it was, Nickel was left with a curious thought on the status of the island and its occupance. There was little room and the further back they went along the island, the more desert-like it became, changing from a lush and tropical forest to that of a arid desert with no moisture to speak of just beyond the mountains. Whatever lived out there would have to get supplies from the main town.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" Adam called out from his spot in the shade.

Nickel ignored him for a moment longer, breathing in the new scents that were over the land. He could almost make out the smell of fresh stew somewhere behind the wall and further up the street. A woman was preparing the meal with two others. It was hard to be sure if there was a third person there for the meal. Too many scents were mixed.

When Adam snapped his sword into its sheath, Nickel turned and flashed a smile. "Yes. I suppose I am." He looked out across the clear blue ocean, a hand above his eyes to shadow them from the sun, and saw only blue for as far as his eyes could see. "No other landmasses close by?"

Adam pulled a long stick of grass from the ground, putting it in his mouth. "Not really. There is one, but it's no better. More desert and too small. Smaller than this place, actually. Our Capital is about the same size as that island, believe it or not." He spoke around the grass piece. "Why? Wanna try to get a raid together and get more land? Ghira won't have it."

"Why not?"

"Too many failed operations, I hear. Not saying it can't be done, but holding them then becomes the problem. Grimm around here won't come this far in."

"Won't or haven't found a need to?"

Adam conceded to that. Where the Grimm and land were concerned, Grimm didn't much care. They just went and destroyed whatever they could and moved on. This island had a delicate ecosystem they didn't seem to wanna disrupt. Or so it seemed. They could just be waiting for a good chance to strike. But with people in good spirits and enough guards, they never really bothered them.

Nickel dusted his pants off as he made his way to Adam. The redhead was still thinking about his statement when he noticed him heading for the wall. "Ready to head back?"

"Well, I'm sure my clothes are done now."

Adam snickered. "You don't like that we're putting you in new clothes, do you?"

No. No he did not. But, his current outfit was all he had and it was starting to smell. Plus, it wasn't set for this climate. He had already removed his jacket and pelts and was down to just his fishnet shirt and pants. No shoes either.

"The only saving grace was that you understood what I would and wouldn't wear."

Adam snorted.

Nickel wanted to continue wearing hunter-esq clothing which consisted of pelts, boots, and dark pants, long sleeved shirts, vests, and nothing else. There was no style there. Adam wore what he wore because to him it was a sign of power and grace. It made the enemy think of him as a prestigious warrior in his mind. Someone who came out wearing clothing like this and no armor in sight spoke power to him. It brought a level of fear that just killing the closest person to your enemy couldn't.

The redhead got his way, if only by a little with the outfit they had custom made for Nickel. And that was pushing it.

The walk through town was crowded with people during the lunch rush hour. Nickel thought he spied Yuma getting a weapon from a smith. A few people gave them praise, as they were survivors from the villages that Adam had rescued them from, along with Nickel for the one group he had helped rescue. Most didn't know their names, just calling them by the moniker given to them by the people they helped.

Adam didn't like his all that much, but wasn't going to voice anything about it. A name was a name to him.

Nickel stopped in front of a small hut, his tail dropped down in a rare sign of annoyance. Adam thought nothing of it and shoved the flap to the shop open, revealing Kali talking to the shop owner as they exchanged stories about their day.

"Kali," Adam greeted, thankful that the mask hid his confused expression, "what's the wife of the Chieftain doing down here?"

Kali turned slowly, unamused by his humor and then gestured to a large bundle of blankets that had been neatly folded and wrapped for transportation. "If you must know, _commoner_," she joked, "I'm here getting blankets for the return trip for another group."

"I guess that makes sense."

Kali grabbed her bundle, offering a smile to the both of them. "Ghira has a meeting today and wants you both there. It's concerning the departure time. It might have been moved up. Word is a storm is on the way and it would push back the departure time by another two weeks if it's as strong as it's being led to believe."

"We'll be there." Adam told her. Kali nodded and departed, leaving the duo with the owner as the young deer Faunus went into the back to get their order. "I really don't see the issue with another two weeks before departure."

"They wanna get home as quickly as possible. Start new lives and forget the horrors they witness."

Adam wondered if that was what Nickel was doing now. Trying to quickly change to a new life before facing the reality of his past life. His only hope was that he could be there for him when he needed him and help him stay on the right path, no matter what path that may be.

The owner walked out a few minutes later carrying two large bags. Nickel happily took them and gave her what little money he had earned from his one job with the White Fang. The owner eyed it and pushed it back to him.

"No, hun. The way I see it, you deserve it more. Being out there in the harsh world with those Humans." She shook her head. "Money talks over there. You can pay me back by coming back. I'll charge you next time when you're on your feet."

Grumbling, Nickel took his money back and walked out with Adam. The duo moved quickly to Adam's small home. Small was putting it rather lightly. It was a single room house with a small kitchen and single bathroom. The only thing Adam had to his name were two futons and few dishes, and a single dresser that housed his clothing.

"Get changed and we'll head over to Ghira's for the meeting."

The woman had done a good job in crafting his clothing. She had kept his pelt-like clothing as best she could, putting furs along the pauldrons and tops of his boots, though that had been hidden by the shin guards he wore over his boots. Metal vambraces covered his forearm and part of his black leather gloves. Though it was currently too hot to wear, he was given a small chest piece and black mesh shirt to wear underneath it. The finishing touch came in the form of two leather belts, one that helped keep his gun holstered to his thigh and the other that held his pouches.

His knives, which were still being replaced, would once again take up residence on his vambrace and boots while his wakizashis would be on the small of his back. Tukson had been very happy to return the weapon to him, even apologizing for the delay.

They had a quick snack before leaving and heading up to the mansion that was Ghira's home. It was the first time either of them had been to the place, though Adam had often sat and looked at it in his free time, wondering how many rooms the place had. It was a home built for the Chieftain, though in the beginning he had denied wanting such a place, feeling it would disconnect him from those he worked with and built the White Fang for. He took it when he needed more office space and from there it had been added on to for other people that were rescued, serving as a small Inn for those without a home.

Nickel knocked on the door and waited patiently. "Imposing," Adam finally said.

"What?"

"The house. Mansion. Whatever you wanna call it. It's imposing."

Nickel looked around, taking Adam's words for a more literal sense than a figurative one. "Not to me, it doesn't. It looks like this place was built first and then the city came after. If anything, the city is imposing."

Adam was about to make a correction when the door was opened by a small girl, probably eight years old with short black hair and a pair of cat ears pinned excitingly. She blinked a few times and then her ears dropped. They were not what she had been waiting for.

"We're here to speak with Ghira," Adam told her.

The small girl gestured to a large room behind them and the duo entered as the girl squealed and ran out the door to greet someone. Probably a friend.

Ghira was waiting at the table, speaking with Saber as the Faunus was pointed to a map rather heatedly about something. They spoke in a hushed tone, so neither Adam nor Nickel overheard what was said. Saber took note of them, calmed down and gave them false smiles.

"We're waiting on Sienna and then this meeting can commence." Ghira informed them.

Adam sat down on his knees, just as Saber was doing. Nickel, unfamiliar with such a way of sitting, sat cross legged before noting Adam's strange way of sitting. The redhead arched a brow behind his mask but said nothing. Different styles of living.

"Sorry I'm late!" Sienna marched in with the little girl clinging to her arm. "Your daughter tackled me at the door."

"Blake," Ghira reached over, ready to pry his daughter from his second-in-command, "this is an important meeting."

"Another rally?" There was hope in her voice, leaping from Sienna's side to her fathers' in an instant.

"Not this time. Relocation effort. We're returning some of the Faunus back home. But only those who want to leave."

"Can I come?!"

Ghira felt prideful that his daughter wanted to help, but after Kali's little adventure in Anima, he was hesitant to take any family member with him. "Not this time. Perhaps on the next one. I need someone to hold down the fort."

Childishly, Blake turned to Sienna with wide, puffy, begging eyes. "Why can't I come, Sienna?"

Sienna looked to Ghira for support. She was her friend only because of her close connection to Kali. She was more of the cool older sister that Blake lacked. No siblings to play with or female companions made her look for them. She found them in Sienna and would often turn to her when father put his foot down.

"I can't see this going as badly as the rescue operation, Ghira."

Hope returned to Blake's eyes as Sienna's words.

"No. The last one was too dangerous. I refuse to put my little girl in harms' way. We'll be traveling all over Anima again. And this time, the Grimm are more active with increased bandit activity. I'd rather not see my daughter harmed during this relocation effort."

Nickel looked at the map, his hand going to his gun and caressing the smooth harmer. It was dated, but not terribly so. "You might not have to worry about bandits, sir." Nickel walked around to Saber and motioned to a valley. "I know this area. There aren't bandit camps for miles. The mountains are too steep for any shelters to be made there. The only safe place to camp, is on the road. No place to hide. And these two villages aren't here anymore, but they do still offer shelter."

"I'd rather not include my daughter, thank you very much." Ghira gave Blake a hard look. "Find your mother. I'm sure she's preparing another rally. Perhaps she could use some help." Begrudgingly, Blake stormed off, unhappy and in tears. Ghira shut his eyes, knowing that this would come back to bite him later. "Thank you for your input," he let it hang there as he looked the Gunslinger over, searching for his name, "Gunslinger?"

"Nickel Lancaster."

"Not a fan of the name?"

Nickel stood up straight, his hand on his piece and a sideways glance. "I don't mind it." He took his spot beside Adam and continued to look at the map as the meeting commenced.

"A storm is on its way. We will be leaving first, since the storms' projected path will be in our direct path." He motioned to the valley and the long road leading to Argus. "Argus is currently under siege from several large Grimm, but should have them cleared in time for us to arrive there with the people wanting to return to Anima. Normally, we'd simply drop them off at the harbor, but we can't do that right now. Too many aquatic Grimm have been seen near that area."

"And Argus can't do anything about it?" Sienna questioned.

"Not at the moment. They diverted a lot of resources into killing the unknown Grimm and relocation efforts for other villages. We'll dock at Mistral and attempt to take the train to Argus, but given how Mistral can be…"

"Prepare for a long hike." Adam grumbled to himself. Sienna snorted and Saber was left shaking his head. Nickel was the only one not seeing a problem, something that Adam pointed out. "You like the wilderness, so I guess you'll be at home, huh?"

"Yes. Rather not die on a Metal Death Trap, thank you very much."

"It's called a train."

"Yeah. Metal Death Trap. Or do you prefer High Speed Coffin?"

Sienna cleared her throat and flashed a fake smile towards the two. "So good of you to finally focus again. Let's try to keep opinions of Atlas Tech to a minimum during these meetings, shall we?" Nickel lowered his head while Adam rolled his eyes, thankful for his mask. "Don't roll your eyes, Adam." Or not.

Once order was regained, Ghira took over. "Because of this time shift, I can't go. I'll be taking another team on the correct departure time." His eyes slowly turned to Sienna as he said, "You'll be leading this team, Sienna. While I doubt you'll encounter any problems you can't face, I do ask that you try to keep the loss of life to a minimum."

"Are you saying that because of my aggressive stance, or because my team killed a few bandits during their raid on the campsite?" She crossed her arms.

"Both, but I do see your point. I only ask that you keep the loss of life as low as possible. You'll be moving civilians. Fighting won't be a wise option. And," he raised his hand before she could open her mouth, "I understand that we can't choose where and how we fight. But we can try to end things peacefully before it turns bad. That's all I ask."

Sienna pursed her lips tightly, working the plan in her head as she tried to think of which routes to take to avoid Bandits. "Understood. When do we leave?"

"In a few hours. I'm sorry to drop this on you so suddenly. I know some of you haven't fully recovered, but I'm trusting you all with this. Please, get those people safely to Argus. Not for me, but for them."

Adam nodded. "Of course, sir." He bowed his head deeply before standing up and gesturing to Nickel. The two departed and found Blake at the door, her red eyes puffy and still wet. "Blake, right?" Adam asked, kneeling down to her level. She nodded. "Thank you for wanting to come, but maybe next time we'll take you with us. Get stronger. Maybe then you'll be allowed to come with us."

"I am strong!"

Adam felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up at Nickel as the Gunslinger's eyes softened. "You are strong. Never let anyone tell you otherwise." He withdrew his gun, flipped it over and handed it to her. "Hold this and tell me the weight of a life."

Confused but willing, Blake took the weapon and was surprised by its weight. Her tiny hands could barely hold the gun in one and when she tried to steady the thing, she wobbled and lowered it.

"This thing has killed a few people. It weighs a lot, doesn't it?" Blake gave it back, nodding in awe at it. "Each life this takes, it weighs a little more."

She sniffed back her remaining tears and gained an aura of realization. "Does it ever get easier?"

Nickel holstered the weapon, his eyes glazing over with memories of the slain, the homes that burned to the ground, the lives that he lost, and Darkness that stood at their door. Adam saw those horrors in his eyes. Blake saw only strength.

Nickel squirmed uncomfortably as he tried to think of a way to answer Blake's question.

"To put it simply, kid...well...it can't be put simply at all."

Her ears drooped.

"Pulling a trigger gets easier and easier the more you do it. I mean, why do we practice shooting at targets? It's to improve our marksmanship. When the time comes to shoot a live target, whether an animal for food, or an enemy for defense, we tend to overthink the act. We begin to worry about injuring or killing the target, what the consequences of that shot will be, and whether the shot was actually justified. These thoughts can interfere with the accuracy of our shots. We practice marksmanship to be able to quiet those thoughts and allow our reflexes to take over, for our own protection and the protection of the others around us."

"So, that was the easy part of the answer; the part about the physical act of shooting another. The second part of the answer isn't so easy to explain."

"When the time comes to shoot a real target, like a deer or an enemy, our brain can do less thinking, and our body can react without conscious thought. While the act of pulling the trigger becomes inherent, morals and your conscience tend to get in the way. Eventually, you learn to tune them out and act without their guiding voices to keep you on the path."

Her voice was near a whisper when she spoke. "And what's the right path? How do you know if you're on the right path?"

Nickel shrugged, standing to his full height as he withdrew his gun and looked at it with a critical eye. "You don't. It's something you have to find and travel down yourself. Only you know the path."

"But what if I go down the wrong path?"

Nickel thought of Leon and the final battle he'd fought in. "Pray that you have someone to help you stay on your path." He holstered his weapon and walked out the door, his eyes hard as steel.

Blake watched him leave, her eyes lingering on his retreating form until Adam stepped past her. While she received no solid answer, in her mind she found an answer and a path. If her father wouldn't let her leave to do good, she'd do it on her own.

With strength of mind and body, she looked back to her mother and departed, heading after them to do what needed to be done for her people.

(-)

Adam jogged up beside Nickel as the Gunslinger made his way to the dock. It was easy to know which one they were taking. Only one had a bunch of Faunus putting their belongings onboard and getting set for a three to five day trip at sea.

Since he only had the clothes on his back, his gun, ammo, and twin wakizashi to his name, he was ready to go.

"Ship won't leave for another two hours," Adam told him. Nickel nodded mutely. Adam knew he was thinking about his words to Blake. Poor girl never got the answer she wanted. Child innocence was a blessing and curse. They wanted the answer then and there with no work needed. "You did the right thing."

Nickel stopped to admire the ship. Large enough to hold the fifteen families they were taking to Argus, the thing was fitted with at least some weaponry. Hopefully it was strong enough to deter any would-be attackers from taking a shot at them; be them Grimm or Pirates.

He ran his hand along the hard wood and chipped paint where a name had once been written, while his thoughts returned to the answer he couldn't give to her. Truth of the matter was, he had no answer. Not one he could truly give. There was no answer. Not a path one could knowingly walk or the true weight of a life.

The path he walked was his own. He feared no one could or should walk beside him for the path he walked was Sorrows' Road, a path left for those who lost all they had. A road crafted by hardship and blood. Your only friend, the iron at your side. Your lover, death.

All that talk and he was no better. Adam was his Light, but his wavering faith made him question not only Adam, but himself. How could he stay true to his teachings when his teacher had betrayed them? How could he stay true to someone who didn't know what the promise meant? How could he relay these problems if the only thing that ran through his mind was questions that could never be answered. The innocence of a child was still ripe in his mind, despite the damage it was sustaining from the choices he now made.

"Maybe," he answered, dropping his hand to his side as he moved for the ramp. "I don't have anything to take with me. Might as well get to know the families we'll be taking to Argus. Let them know that they're under the protection of the Gunslinger and the Swordsman."

Adam laughed. "I'm sure they already know." He took a deep breath and looked back to his home, a spot in the distance, but he knew where it was. "I need to grab my pack. I followed you down here and I kind of need to get my things for this. No telling how long this trip will last."

Nickel nodded and boarded the ship and started speaking with the first family as they ran up to the edge of the ship, their excited child leaning over to look down into the clear water below.

He intended to when he caught a familiar scent that he turned around to track. It got to the lowest level of the ship and looked at a mass of crates. Rolling his eyes, he walked through the neatly laid stacks until he came to one that was slightly ajar. Inside he could hear the soft whisper of hushed breathing.

"This'll spoil." He snapped the crate closed and waited. A moment later the lid slowly opened, tiny hands pushing it open and a pair of amber eyes peered through the darkness, wide in shock. "You're ruining some of the supplies," he told her.

The lid was thrown open, Blake standing tall in a crate of fresh herbs for cooking. He wanted the lid closed now, but was holding his ground as Blake stood tall with a piece of basil sticking to her elbow, not a weapon in sight on her person.

"You have a weapon?" She shook her head and suddenly shrank in size. Nickel looked up and to the right, almost like he was looking in the direction of some powerful figure. Blake suddenly shrank when he turned back to her. "You're parents don't know, do they?" She shook her head. "And what makes you think I should let you come?"

"Because you said I was strong."

"Strength doesn't just mean physical might, you know? Sometimes, real strength is about biting the bullet and doing something you don't wanna do."

"I thought it was about doing what was right?"

"Strength means too many things." Whatever serious tone he had taken prior that made her timid was gone to her, and she smiled, accepting that realist answer anyone could give her. "If you don't have a weapon, I see no reason to let you come. You'd just be another mouth to feed, body to look after, and without a family to put you with, you become another family's problem that they don't wanna deal with."

"I can take care of myself!"

"I believe you. But think about what your family must be filling if you leave. What about them? What if this entire operation goes south and we don't come back? They'll wonder what happened to you."

Her head tilted, clear that she had never thought of that. Eight year olds seldom did. "But I wanna help." She jumped out of the crate, standing to her full height, which was to his hips, and gave him the meanest face she could muster.

Nickel knew what she would do if he sent her away or dragged her back to Kali and Ghira. And since she had clearly escaped the reach of her parents, if only for a little bit, without their knowledge, then she'd simply do this again and try to find a better hiding spot.

"You can help me get to know the people on this ship." He knelt down to her eye level, a mischievous glint in his eye. "If your parents show up, you have to go back with them. But for the time being, you can help me meet people. I'm not the best at social interactions."

"What does that mean?"

Blinking, he laughed nervously and started heading for the top. "I'm not good at talking to people."

She laughed and followed after him to help in his important job. It wasn't much, but she was happy to just be needed.


	12. To Lie in the Light

**To Lie in the Light**

"I spy something that begins with…"

"Ocean!"

Nickel shut his mouth and turned sharply to Adam as the redhead rested his chin in the palm of his hand, lazily gesturing the waves of the ocean as the ship continued its voyage from home as if it were the only source of color he could call upon.

After five days at sea on their voyage home from Anima, resting for only a few days, and then being thrown back on a ship to Anima to deliver people, Adam had become rather perturbed. The lack of any fighting, good books - Sienna was being stingy. - and nothing new to talk about, Adam had become almost unbearably angry. Card games were considered, but it was too windy and the idea of playing card games below deck in their quarters with no air circulation and a thunderstorm hammering away on the deck, were a no go, leaving them with few options for entertainment.

Obviously, I Spy had failed.

"There's more than the ocean."

"You used it twice."

"Because I thought you would think I was joking and not call it."

"It's the only blue thing around here. Also, a third time? Really?"

Nickel sat back down on the bed out of both irritation and to show that the sheets were blue, though Adam failed to notice as he continued to stare up at the dark clouds that mocked him. Sunlight. Clear skies. On the deck! If he could be up there right now, he would. Captain said no one was allowed up there because this was her ship and she wasn't going to allow a single passenger to be struck by lightning or thrown overboard from the waves.

"I thought we left early to avoid this?"

"The storm picked up speed." Nickel motioned to a dark mass of clouds with his finger. "That's an anvil. The bigger the cloud, the bigger the storm. It was already creating high winds, allowing it to move faster. We just happened to be working with bad information."

"_Human _information."

Nickel sighed. That was the other problem. Their weather advisory came from a Human broadcast. Ghira had received the news from a "non-credible source," as Adam put it, and jumped the gun. They could have stayed back home for the remainder of the week and been fine when it came time to depart.

While Adam fumed about the miss information given to them, Sienna hadn't taken the news well either, opting to spend most of her time contemplating ways to ensure this never happened again and alone in her quarters.

Despite this setback, they were still on course to arrive by dusk.

What few times talks happened between the guards and the citizens, travel and safety had been the main topic. It was clear that proper transportation would not be given and that a quick trip was out of the question. The Argus Limited had been their best hope for a quick trip, but they were doubtful of getting it. This left them with a convoy of trucks and wagons. Worst option was walking, something no one wanted to do. They had the resources for it, but with older Faunus and children, safety would become an issue.

Nickel promised that he knew safe ways to travel. Adam backed him up, but wasn't one for walking.

They had to hope they'd get a few vehicles for this, or this trip would be problematic.

For the first time, Nickel understood just a little about the trouble that his kind suffered through. Stories never painted a full picture and what few times he had ever been to Mistral did nothing to make the image clearer for him. Their talks painted the picture, made it clearer and brought it more into focus. Humans were the problem and insured that their place in life would always be weaker and nothing more than second-rate citizens in the eyes of those with power. This feeling of superiority was passed down to their children, neighbors and friends, ensuring that the cycle would continue.

Despite the new information, Nickel had his doubts.

A knock at the door brought both men out of their thoughts. Adam stood up and answered it, allowing the familiar form of Tukson in. The large Faunus grinned to the two as he motioned to the hall.

"A few of us are going to play cards. You two wanna join us?"

"No thanks." Adam returned to the chair and continued to stare at the small window.

Nickel shook his head. Tukson nodded in understanding and left silently, shutting the door and heading for who only knew where.

Knowing he wouldn't get anything out of Adam, Nickel returned to his bed, shut his eyes, and drifted into a state of rambling thoughts. His mind drifted from one thought and theory to another. Bouncing like a ball kicked between dozens of children until one thought stuck out and burrowed its way into his flesh like a thorn.

His Second-Fathers' last words to him. What did they mean?

Nickel had tried to make sense of it in the past during moments of rest where his mind was left to wander. When the last words came to him, he was stuck on them and they left a bitter and ruined taste in his mouth, like burnt meat.

On one hand, it was the ramblings of a man near dead, pushed to the limits until his mind shattered. Possible as it was, Leon had been of sound mind, shoving Nickel off the cliff to save him. There was nowhere else to go.

A warning, perhaps. Of things to come.

The bitter truth of the world. That it had no end to horrible monsters: Faunus, Human, and Grimm. In all the stories his father told, as a child he never thought the evils he gunned down replicated or were replaced with dozens like them. How could a man who sold his own children for a horse be replaced by another? What being might replace a tyrant who slew his own child to keep his beloved offspring from helping those who worshiped the ground he stood upon?

His father had gunned down so many people in his time as a Huntsman, that perhaps he saw no end to the fight against the night. A sad and bitter truth, indeed.

Was it simpler than that? A belief passed down from father to son? Knowledge gifted in the form of a question or statement? What did it mean? Why did he say them in his final moments?

Nickel was jostled from his thoughts, his mind clearing from the thoughts as he looked up at Adam through blurry vision. The redhead stood over him, his mouth moving but the words lost on the Gunslinger.

"What?" Nickel finally asked, yawning. The night had come. He slept and pondered on the final words of his Second-Father all day?

Adam sat down in the chair, his eyes narrowed behind the mask he wore. His mouth hung open, ready to speak, but he stopped and shut it in favor of looking his friend over as concern became evident on his features.

Finally, Adam spoke and when he did, his lips turned into a sly smile. "Is she pretty?"

Nickel rolled his eyes. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You sure?" Nickel nodded, yawning again. "You seemed rather enthralled with her. Called her your Angel. Sure you have no idea what I'm talking about?"

Nickel got up, rolling his eyes for a second time. "No idea what you're talking about, Adam." He moved for the door, stopping and turning his head just enough that a single red eye was fixated on Adam. "I didn't say anything else, did I?"

Adam shook his head and relief washed across Nickel's features as he walked out of the room, leaving his friend behind to his lonesome. When the door shut, Adam leaned back against the chair with his eyes closed.

_Nothing ends. What does that mean?_

His thoughts were halted by a knock at the door before it was thrown open by Sienna. "We're about to dock. Guards are requesting information. Figured a few _extra _people might get them on our side for this. Meet me topside."

Adam grabbed his things and followed after her, already seeing Nickel waiting at the end with a glass of water in hand, Tukson standing off to the side with a book that he was trying to pawn off on the Gunslinger and another family, both parties politely refusing his offers.

Sienna talked and walked at the same time, leading the team topside as the ship finished docking into the harbor. Four Mistral guards waited at the dock, their hands behind their backs and a variety of weapons slung over their shoulders for intimidation.

Sienna wasn't afraid, only unimpressed by their lack of a _proper _welcome. It was almost a slap in the face to them, thinking that four _Human _guards could tend to them. Adam alone could take them down. They were sloppily dressed and unfocused in their stance. Probably believed that the head guard could speak and force them to comply with their whims.

When the ship finally docked, Sienna walked down with Nickel, Adam, and Tukson behind her.

The guards were met with different expressions from the group. Sienna was a face of false pleasantries and understanding, offering no ground given towards the four. Adam held himself high, as though he were above them in power and class. Tukson was worried, his eyes darting from shadow to shadow, fearful of some foul play by the Humans. Nickel put his hand on the gun, caressing the smooth hammer, his eyes hard as steel as he looked each of the four guards over.

The four guards regarded them with smiles, trying as they were, and gestured to the ship where a few families resided to watch the conversation.

"I understand you're relocating a few families, is that correct?" The taller of the guards stepped forward, his hand going to the staff on his back as he shifted his stance from side to side, eyeing the four Faunus before him.

"Yes." Sienna gestured behind herself towards the ship. "We have nearly twenty families aboard our ship, along with trade supplies for Mistral and Argus."

The guard nodded, dragging a mask that covered the lower half of his face and flashed a smile. "We were briefed on your arrival by Ghira. Man asked us to make sure you get the best… Nickel?" His eyes widened at the sight of the Faunus. For a moment, there was a flash of joy and relief in his eyes, but that quickly faded. "Nickel Lancaster?"

Nickel stepped forward, pushing past a concerned Adam, taking a single sniff of the air before his eyes were sunken with sadness. "Yone?"

The guard put his hands on his shoulders, his eyes still sullen with realization. "Did you get them?" Yone asked quietly. He nodded. "And the others? Did they…?"

Nickel removed his hand, his head down as he shook it. "No. They died in the fight against them."

"And Leon?"

There was a long pause. Nickel could still hear the last crack of the gun as he fell. "Grimm…"

Yone stepped back, his eyes tightly shut. The other three guards were confused, one removed their cloth mask and looked around as he leaned closer to Yone to whisper something. The man pushed him aside and looked to Sienna. "He with you? Relocation or working with you?"

"Working. Is that a problem?"

Yone pulled his mask up. "No, ma'am. Just curious." He cleared his throat. "Our shops are closed for the day. I'll see to it that you can get some transports for your people and the goods you're carrying in the morning. You have my word."

"And a place to stay?"

"There's a Inn down the street. If you need the help, I'll ensure your safe arrival there." His eyes slowly turned to Nickel as he regained some semblance of his normal self. "Nickel can vouch for me. Get those that wish to sleep in a warm bed off the ship. We have room."

Sienna turned slowly, fearful of taking her eyes off the man, and gave the order to Tukson and Nickel. Both returned to the ship without question.

The three guards stayed with Yone until he turned and shooed them away. When pressed, he reached for his weapon, his eyes alive with electricity, and turned his back on them, his staff reacting to the power of his Semblance.

"If it's all the same to you," Yone looked back to the ship and then to them, "I'd like a chance to speak with you when we have the time. I doubt you're of the nocturnal kind, but I feel it must be done before you leave. I know not when our paths may cross."

"Why?" Adam touched his sword as a show of force. A gentle caress had scared lesser men, but this one was different. Adam saw no ill intent within the man before him.

"It concerns Nickel. I think it's clear I'm from his village. I knew him. There are things you need to know. Take the offer or leave it. The Inn has a bar. You can meet me there once everyone is settled. I'll stick around for ten minutes."

"Why should we believe you?" Sienna crossed his arms, her false demoner gone, replaced with a woman of ice. If she could kill him now with a glance alone, Yone knew he'd be dead ten times over. She wished it, but knew better and could already hear the families returning with sleepy children. "No tricks."

"None."

The families exited the ship as crews went to work gathering the supplies. They were led to an unkept Inn. True to Yone's word, the beds were warm and welcoming with a bar behind the front desk. A few families got dinner there, sitting in silence and hoping to not make a scene.

Sienna and Adam came to the table where Yone was waiting, his Mistral headdress removed, showing salt and pepper hair from age or stressful work, already working over a beer of some kind.

Two minutes they waited as Yone sat there sipping his beer, contemplating something. Adam swore the man wasn't sitting in front of them. His eyes flashed with emotion, as if he were jumping from one memory to another. He'd work his jaw with his eyes closed and snort when joy was reflected in them. When he finally spoke, Adam felt the words more than he heard them.

"Nothing ends…"

Adam leaned back in his chair. Sienna arched a thin brow.

Yone put the beer down, his eyes turning to Adam. "He said that to you, didn't he?" Adam nodded slowly, fearful of what it meant. "I was worried about that. His father, good man as he was, had more problems and questionable logic than Lionheart."

Yone reached into his vest, pulling out a brown leather book and put it on the table. It bore no name or title. He slid it directly into the center of the table, his eyes staring at it like some foul thing spat up by a creature of evil.

Sienna reached out, slowly pulling the book back, her curious nature getting the better of her. She flipped it to the first page, her eyes scrutinizing each word written. "For he was a beacon. Hope given form, yet still, only a man. From that truth there was a great promise; if one man could stand against the night, then so too could anyone - everyone." She read outloud, loud enough that only they heard her before her eyes returned to Yone, the book now closed. "What is this?"

He gestured to the thing in her hand, his eyes lost, yet focused, on the book. "It's Leon Lancasters' diary, journal. Whatever you wanna call it. By all accounts, it's Nickels. Leon's last words to me were to give that to him should anything happen to him. Shame to say it, but something did happen. Leon isn't with us anymore, which means I give that to Nickel. No questions asked. But the sad truth is that I can't just give it to him."

Adam snorted. "And why not?"

"Did he confide those two words to you?" Silence. Yone nodding, knowing the answer. "I thought not. It was Leon's biggest haunt. That man did a lot of good. But he also did a lot of bad. The biggest bad he did was stay in one place and infect others with his Semblance. That damn thing was a drug. Good in small doses, but bad for anyone he stuck with. Nickel was his adopted son, so it stands to reason that he never got to experience it himself without something else interfering."

"And that is?"

"Hope." Yone turned and flagged a waitress down, raising his cup and offering a smile to her. She was quick to refill his drink and leave after offering to Adam and Sienna. "I have no doubt you know the different types of Semblances that are out there. I ain't gonna bore you with it. But Leon's Semblance was Hope. He couldn't turn the damn off if he wanted to, not that he did. Made his job a lot easier."

Sienna blinked, the book now forgotten. "He had an active Semblance that gave Hope to people?"

"The greatest lie ever told was done by a man who earned the title of Noble Man for his noble deeds. The world would be a lot darker if he didn't do what he did, but what he did was make it darker with his death. That man was a beacon. No one will dispute that fact. He spread hope wherever he went, but that hope was a lie. It was infectious to anyone around him."

"I fail to see a problem here." Adam confessed.

Yone chuckled. "Many people would. But let me ask you this: Do you have someone who sits on a pedestal that you think should never be taken down?" The redhead was slow to nod, begrudgingly. "Most people do. Be it their best friend, lover, or child. Leon was Nickel's hero. That man had done more good than any seasoned Hunter did in a lifetime. He saved villages, gunned down bandits, and pushed back the Grimm on all fronts. He was the first Gunslinger I ever laid eyes on, and the best. Nickel is the second-best."

"I'd dispute that." Sienna commented coldly.

"Dispute it all you want. At the end of the day, even you would take Leon over Nickel. He never missed. And I know Nickel is good, great even, but he is not on Leon's level. But that's not the point. Leon's Semblance had an issue that only a few people knew about. I was one of the lucky ones to learn about it. He confided in me the issue of his Semblance, the choices he had made that lead to Nickel's adoption, and the haunts he dealt with. Those words, they weren't just Leon's. His master said those words to him when she died."

"So what? Nickel now has a haunt?"

"Basically. It's a curse, or that's how Leon saw it. They haunted him because he wondered what it meant. Spent years on the road believing that it was something he could disprove. Kill a bandit and two more take their place. He thought he could kill them and the Grimm. Prove the haunt wrong. But the longer he stayed on the road, the longer he fought, more corrupt and evil people replaced the ones he gunned down, the more he believed the words she cursed him with."

"What do you think it means?" Adam asked. He'd had limited time to think on it and he wanted to prove he could be the Light Nickel needed to find salvation and clear himself of the guilt he carried.

Yone lowered his head, smacking his lips and banging his fist lightly on the table, careful to not to rock it and spill the drinks. "I have no idea. When the village was formed and I showed up, Leon had already realized his error. Two years he spent trying to figure out how to make right what he did wrong. And one night, he came to me, drunk and crying."

Sienna glanced down at the book in her hand. The first passage made her see this man as some mighty warrior with a gun on his hip. Yone made him sound impressive and formidable, but now he seemed more real, less untouchable. He was, as he put it, only a man.

"He told me about his Semblance, and said that it wasn't a good one. I saw the value in it. But then he asked me what would happen if he died or I left? Got me thinking. You have someone giving you hope. False hope. Now think about that. Nickel, who was around him since he was just a baby, lived with that man. Had his Hope inside him. Nickel has no hope. He has no imagination, no drive, no fear. This is something Leon did to him. Nickel's hope died with Leon. He knew this day would come and feared for Nickel. He spent years trying to get him to leave, to join the Academies. Atlas took an interest in him, same as Beacon. But at the end of the day, Nickel was afraid to leave because he lacked those things. Some might say that Leon trained him well. Well enough to be the perfect soldier. I argue differently. He made him what he is by teaching him to do good because it's good. He has a great concept of right and wrong. And at the end of the day, Nickel is a broken man with dying hope in his system. Maybe it's already happened, but one day he will find his hope gone and unable to replace it. When that happens, he will fall."

"Does that have anything to do with the Light?" Adam was fearful now. Nickel never voiced these issues, but the more he looked back on it, it made sense. He didn't want to jump into the fight because he wanted information. But what if it wasn't just because he wanted information and instead saw no chance for survival fighting against unknown odds? When fighting happened, he rushed forward without hesitation, throwing himself into dangerous situations because he was okay to die.

Yone released a sad sigh while setting the beer down. He stared into the dark liquid, his eyes unfocused once more. The silence was suffocating. Sienna felt fear in her gut as Yone opened his eyes with sympathy floating behind his now tired eyes.

"The Light is a misunderstanding." He was quiet, his young voice now sounding old and worn. "The Light is Hope, but the Hope is the Lie. Leon used that word as a way to hide his Semblance. People wrote about him. Some called him the "Beacon of Hope" or the "Light in the Dark."

Adam fell back against his chair, his mouth agape and his eyes - though hidden - closed tightly. How? How could this man Nickel spoke of with such pride be such a horrible person?

"It hurts being the one he confided in. Years I spent looking at Nickel wishing a better life for him. That's what I'm doing now." He tapped the diary that Sienna had put back on the table. "I saw him and I wished to take him. Give him a chance to spread his wings, be something more than what he was. But I know that'd make me no better than Leon. I can't do that to him. I won't do that to him. Nickel deserves to be happy. I think he can have that with your group."

An alarm sounded and Yone turned slowly as a pair of guards rushed in. "Sir! We have Grimm at the walls." One of them shouted.

Yone snorted and got to his feet. "Idiot! Keep your voice down. Not all these people are drunk or light sleepers." He grabbed up the speaker after making the short jog to him and lifted him in the air. "Get a team together to defend the wall. Don't need me to explain that, now do you?"

Stammering, the guard shook his head. "N-no, sir. But Lionheart wants all teams to investigate. Said to grab everyone, sir."

Yone dropped the guard, rolling his eyes as he did and turned to the two Faunus. "We can finish this meeting later. I need to clean up a mess. Let's go." He turned his back to them, mumbling choice words against Haven's Headmaster.

Sienna and Adam returned to their rooms to ponder the information they had been told.

They'd never meet Yone again. It would be the next morning that Sienna would receive news of his death at the hands of Grimm. She did not share the news with Nickel, believing that it might devastate him and send him further into a spiral of depression, the likes of which he may not recover from.

She didn't sleep that night, favoring to learn the legacy of the man who raised Nickel. This was not to prove Yone right or wrong. To see if his raising of Nickel was one she could stand behind. No. This was to understand the philosophy of a man who harbored more demons than she could count.

Cracking the book open, she felt something cold run over her hand and wondered, if only for a small moment, this was the ghost of Leon Lancaster standing beside her to bear witness to her reading of his life.

_I never thought I'd make something like this. Putting a pen to paper has always been difficult for me. I'm a man of action, not words or writing. But, I feel this needs to be done. To set the record straight. To make amends for past failures._

_My biggest failure, no matter what you might think, was you, Nickel. You had a right to your own life, and I took that from you. You remain my biggest regret, despite the fact you became my greatest source of joy. _

_This won't make things right, but it'll put them into account. These are my words, not someone else's. Not the words of a dying man. My words in the here and now. _

_So, I'll start off by saying that this won't be a complete set of events. Just key points you need to know. _

_My name is Leon Lancaster, the world appointed Noble Man. This is my story. _


	13. Failure to Absolve

**Failure to Absolve**

_I'm not the first wielder of my gun. The Gun. It saw many hands before coming to me. I never knew the first or even the second. To my knowledge, she is the third, my master, Amina. She found me barely alive and scrawny._

_Amina was a real woman. Not the type you see in big cities. I mean a real woman. She carried herself with all the strength of nobility and had the power to back up any claim she had against her. If things got heated, she had always had the final word with that gun._

_You see, she was the third wielder of the gun to my knowledge. It was given to her when her master, some guy I can't remember the name of, fell in combat. She didn't take the gun then, that came way later. Funniest story she told me was how she got it, but that's for another time. _

_So, she found me. Took me in and raised me as her own. Now back then, Huntresses and Huntsmen weren't really popular. The big schools hadn't coined the phrase and us normal folks didn't like the idea of people running around with powers and weapons they couldn't deal with. And Grimm and Bandits weren't the only thing people had to fear either. _

_Huntsmen were the real problem. _

_Anyone who didn't know how to use their Semblance or Aura were usually just food for the Grimm. If you could figure out how to use it, well, you could take down a small village with practical ease. And if you had good weapons and armor, you might be able to hit a good sized one and make off with whatever goods you wanted. _

_People had a right to fear these schools. Bandits were bad enough, but throwing Huntsmen into the mix was just insane. No one wanted to deal with that. That was why a lot of "Tyrants" started popping up all over Remnant for a short time. _

_When things got too bad and villages began to have real issues because of them, small people rose up to challenge them. A lot of them paid the price for it. There was this one guy, Oolong, a real piece of work, who got training, graduated at the top of his class with his team, then returned home to rule over his village with an iron fist. No one could beat him. The people lived in fear 'till she showed up. _

_Amina strolled into town looking for a place to stay. Didn't want any trouble. _

_I was ten years old at the time. My parents had fought against Oolong, lost their lives and left me too early. But when I saw her, she reminded me of my mother. Back before that bastard came back with his "Gift" as he called it. _

_Oolong didn't much like her. He walked up to her and demanded respect. I can still remember how she tilted her head to the side, her emerald eyes so full of confusion at the tone and demands he made. _

_Maybe she had heard rumors about him. Took the job from some survivors that had escaped. Or maybe she saw how afraid of him we were. I don't really know. But what I do know, is that when he made demands of her, she didn't listen to him. Pissed him off like no one's business. _

_If he killed her, we knew that we'd suffer for her actions. _

_She didn't speak. Didn't even say a word after his demands were made clear. Amina raised a hand to the sky, her porcelain face twisted into a horrible scowl, judging him for his deplorable actions to us. _

_It's hard to put into words what I saw. I'm still not sure what it was I witnessed to this day. _

_The sky opened up and the heavens came down upon him with such force that he disappeared before our eyes where he stood. What remained was charred earth, say for two footprints, acting like some sort of testament to his previous existence. _

_Despite what you may think, we didn't rejoice. We were terrified of her. One Tyrant was bad enough. The only thing strong enough to kill one was another one or some lucky fool who got them with their pants down. _

_I was scared. Scared so badly that I never noticed she was standing before me until she knelt down to my level, hand outstretched, and a warm smile on her face. _

_She gave me food. Nursed me back to health. Stayed in the village for about two weeks before she said she had to go. I didn't want her to leave. None of us did. She made us feel safe. Safer then we ever had felt. _

_Amina came up to me before she left, her eyes were always so bright, but not this time. She asked me if I wanted a chance at a better life. I didn't understand the look she was giving me. Even writing it now, I still don't know what it was she was thinking. _

_But, I took it. I didn't have anything else to live for. Not like the rest of the people. They had families. I didn't. _

_I never got a chance to go back. Three years after I left, I got wind that my former home was gone. Grimm attack. Nasty business. _

_Amina trained me on how to use a gun. Not her gun. She made me one. Had a smith make it for me. It was the nicest thing I had ever owned at that point. She made me believe that I could do anything._

_We traveled for years together. So long that, at times, I thought I had been with her my whole life. They were the best years of my life. There was adventure. Glory. Fame. Fortune. All the things a child believes in when they think of the outside world. But that lens started to crack. It didn't take long before those adventures of glory and fame turned to hardship and torture. I walked away from so many villages, sometimes not having the strength to save a single soul. It was crushing. _

_I can still hear the voice of a little girl crying out for help as she was dragged away by some ungodly horror. I never saw it. I saw her bright silver eyes though. She was pleading for help. And I was too slow. We both were. _

_Traveling with her opened my eyes to the real world. I vowed to be something so great that no one could challenge me. I would become a symbol. I would become so powerful that no evil would escape my sight or my reach. I would slay all that challenged me and those I protected. _

_Wishful thinking. Childish dreams and delusions of grandeur. That's what that was. Just childish dreams. _

_We never worked with others much. I can only ever remember a few. Grimm Reaper was scary. Nice lady, but that wasn't her name. Never got the real one. She always used that moniker of hers. Said someone just coined it one day and she let it stick. Marcus Black was a real hot head, but he was near my age and stuck around for a few gigs before finding some woman. _

_Amina never told me her Semblance. She told me mine. Said it was the reason she took me from there. _

_I've never been one to turn tail and run. Everyone has something they're afraid of. Big things. Small things. _

_I'm dragging it out. I know. But, this was hard for me. Still hard for me. _

_My Semblance is a curse. It's not a good one. It gives Hope to people. Let that sink in. Hope. A good thing. Great thing, even. Makes people believe they can do anything. Sounds great, right? Ask that pretty girl down the street to a dance. Believe you understand that math question and answer it in front of your class. Yeah?! Sounds great, right? _

_Well it ain't. _

_It makes you believe you can achieve anything. Do anything. Do you think some run of the mill average joe with no training can really stop a Beowolf with his bare hands? Hell no. But it makes you believe you can. See the problem? See the curse, now? _

_When she told me what it was, I thought it was a good thing. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense why it was so terrible. _

_I gave my village hope for tomorrow. Hope that they were strong enough to stop Oolong by themselves. Their blood was on my hands, and I never knew it till then. And leaving them… I killed them. They had spent ten years around me. Sure, my Semblance wasn't active then. Don't know really when it started. For all I know, it came on when I started traveling with her. But I think that's wishful thinking. _

_See, I gave them hope, and when I left, they had forgotten how to have it and make it. So they simply stopped living. Made them easy targets for the Grimm. _

_Sure, maybe I am innocent. Maybe it never activated 'till I left with her. But I doubt it. I'd rather be wrong then right. I live with that guilt. I killed my people. Maybe even my parents. _

_Nickel, what I'm trying to say, is that I'm not the man you think I am. You see me as some kind of proud warrior. Someone who stands tall in the face of all evils. A tall man made taller when facing the evils of the world. But that's the thing. I'm just a man. I'm not some immortal being. _

_Neither was she. I thought she was, 'till she wasn't. _

_I got her killed. I believe that. My arrogance, Semblance, pride, whatever you wanna call it. It got her killed. The woman who became my mother died doing what she felt was right. Lived by a code. I hated that code, but I made it mine without realizing it. _

_She used to say, "The last man standing is the one in the right." I hated that saying. Hated it so much that I disputed her on it several times. How can that be a thing? It didn't make any sense to me. _

_The last time I spoke to her, our words were heated. She had gone for her gun, maybe as a show of force, or because she had known what was coming. I didn't fire. Never even drew my gun. _

_She drew first. Didn't shoot me. Thought she would have. Should have. Maybe this wouldn't have happened. You wouldn't have been in this situation. _

_Amina fought against an Alpha Beowolf the likes of which I had never seen. I had been fighting for twelve years with her. So when I fumbled my gun, I wondered how I could have done that. Still to this day, I wonder about it._

_She shot it ten times in the chest and it barreled through me and into her, taking her into the lake. People always say that time has no meaning. I disagree. I watched the waters' surface for an eternity before she broke the surface. I pulled her onto dry land and knew it before she said it. _

_Amina was going to die. There was nothing I could do. That Grimm was still alive, too. It rose out of the water missing its entire left arm. I took aim and gunned it down. I reloaded that piece three times, even putting in some insurance by giving it more lead to the face. _

_Whatever horrors were coming for us had backed off or had just never been there. _

_I sat there 'till her body grew cold and lifeless. I didn't know what to do. She had died during the fight. Her final words to me become my biggest haunt. _

"_Nothing ends." _

_What does it mean? For years I thought it was something easy. I thought it would be simple. I could make the evils of the world so small with my gun in hand. I would be the symbol people needed. Proof that those that would wish us harm were nothing more than shadows to be banished. What a fool I was. _

_I vowed to be a better man from that point on. Live by her example with the Gun in hand._

_But the funny thing was that I never found her gun. I searched for an entire year. Never had any luck. I went back to that lake once a week. She said it was mine by right of passage alone. I believed her. _

"Sienna?"

Sienna pulled her eyes away from the diary and back to Adam. She blinked them a few times as she snapped the thing shut and put it back in her back.

"Where are we at?"

"No idea."

She hated not knowing. Not much she could do. She wasn't exactly being the ideal guard at the moment.

Yone had done them good in the end. Despite his death, his word still carried a lot of weight. Several trucks had been given to them, allowing transportation to be rather easy. Gave her time to read and reflect on what she learned.

Nickel had not been informed of Yone's death. It was something Adam found distasteful, but agreed to nonetheless. If Nickel learned of his death shortly after reuniting with someone from his former home, it might send him over the edge. It wasn't hard to hide, either. They're departure was done hours after the bodies were removed. A few Faunus guards had lost their lives in the fighting and Sienna felt bad that they had not acted when the news had spread of a Grimm attack.

Sienna looked at the mirror and saw the three massive trucks behind them following closely. When they rounded a corner, she spied the last pickup, Nickel in the front seat talking with Tukson. Tukson seemed very animated, despite driving, and was holding something up that Nickel looked to be politely refusing.

"Is he a bad guy?"

Sienna was quiet for a long time, her hand returning to her pack to grab the diary and finish reading it. She knew better and didn't.

"I don't think so." Her voice was soft. Nickel and Tukson's pickup disappeared behind the line of trucks and she turned to Adam as he adjusted his mask with one hand while keeping the other on the wheel. "He was troubled. Broken, even. He wanted to do good, but his Semblance made it so that he couldn't stay in one place."

"So he wasn't the Noble Man the people made him out to be?"

"He was certainly that. Didn't like the name, but never talked anyone out of it." Sienna shut her eyes and wished this wasn't so complicated. The more she read, the more she felt like she was further away from the truth of the man, and subsequently, Nickel.

"He regrets what he did to Nickel. That much is certain." She leaned against the worn backrest of the seat, her eyes shut as she breathed in the cool morning air. "He realized what he was doing too late to Nickel."

"But why not send him away?"

Sienna sighed. "He hasn't explained that yet. I think...I think he couldn't. Nickel was already too reliant on him and he couldn't change his mind." She reached back into her pack, retrieving the book and a bottle of water. There was so much left to read. Leon jumped from one story to another, losing his train of thought and forgetting what he was talking about. The man was truly afraid of something. Of that, she could see.

_The Gun came to be a few years later. I gave up searching after one year. Never turned up. _

_The story of The Gun is surrounded in so much myth that it's hard to discern what's real and what's fiction. It's a gun. Not like the new weapons that are built nowadays. Those aren't guns. This is a gun. _

_The Gun isn't unique. __**He **__told me that. It's just a gun. I don't believe him. There is something unique about it. It's like some extension of my body, a missing piece put back into place for me. Holding it was enough in the beginning. Then it's touch was less soothing. A mortal reminder to the lives I had taken in my quest to reclaim that which was mine. _

_He, and that's __**He **__with a capital H by the way, was a real tool. I didn't like him. Still don't. Glad as hell he's dead too. Prick. _

_His name was Eli, great grandson of the original smith who made The Gun. Sometimes I get facts wrong. Part of life. No one knows everything. There are only three certainties in life. 1). Life sucks! 2). Someone always wants to kill you! 3). And no woman knows what she wants! _

_That last one might be a bit biased, but no woman ever said anything nice about me that didn't involve heroic deeds. _

_So, The Gun. How'd I get it? I earned it, according to Eli. When Amina died, The Gun disappeared. I searched that lake for an entire year. Where she surfaced, worked in mathematical equations for fish and underwater currents. Nothing. No trace. Like it never dove down with her. That Grimm came up with holes in its body where she hadn't shot it. She fired while under the water! It went in!_

_A few years later, after I had earned the title of Noble Man, Eli found me at a bar. I was telling some favorable heroics to a few pretty ladies. They weren't having it. Don't blame them. They were more interested in that dumb bird and silver eyed girl. They made a cute couple. Not sure they were, though. _

_Anyways. Eli walked up to the bar, turned to me and said some nonsense I don't care to remember. Talked about how this was a monumental moment of some sort. Bird Boy and Eyes were enamored by the story. I remember that much. Then he pulled out this wooden case, said something about his family being able to connect to the otherside, and opened the box. Inside was The Gun. _

_I might string the truth from time to time. But this is real. He held in that box, The Gun. It was there. Everyone saw it. Some whispered that it was a fake, but others shut them down. Eli gave it and a note from Amina to me. Said it was her final words to me. Words she had never been able to say. _

_I didn't believe him. I tossed the note in the fire of a candle and walked out. Do I regret it? Yeah. What if he was telling the truth? How could someone connect to the otherside? Let you read the final words from loved ones? Would you do it? _

_If her note was real, I should have read it. But I didn't._

_The world is a big place. Lot bigger than people give it credit for. Grimm hold most of that property, but that doesn't mean we can't take it back. We've taken a fair amount of land from them. Worked it into fine villages and small cities. The Kingdom of Atlas has two capitals, and don't give a damn what James says or any other public official says. Mantal is a Capital as well. _

_Eli said it was drawn to me. The Gun, that is. It wanted to be in my hand. Sounds fishy, but it ain't the first story I heard about it. _

_Amina received it after her master died, remember? Her story was no different from mine. A woman gave it to her. She didn't get a name, or she just never told it to me. I'll call her "Sue" for this to keep track. _

_When Amina's master died, The Gun, which she called "Steel Barreled Justice" - Fucking mouthfull, honestly! - was lost. Gone to the wind. Disappeared. Just like mine. She tried to find it, gave up, and then just ran around all over the world helping people. Trying to do right because it was right. Then one day, poof, Sue shows up, same box in hand, same message given from her master. _

_Amina never told me if she read it or not. I think she did. She had more belief in the powers above. I didn't. Still don't. But she did. From that point on, she told me she was going to do more right. Right wrongs. Fix the world. Make it safer. Like she wasn't doing it already. _

_I think that's what's wrong with the world. Too many people are trying to change it. It works right now. Why try to fix something that ain't completely busted? It works! _

_It wasn't always like this. Never before has our world been shaken so badly like what it is now. Everyone gets mad over the smallest of things. No one covers the big new stories anymore. Sometimes, they just focused on past events. _

_Mountain Glen is a good example. It was on the news for years after its fall. People still talk about it to this day. It was Vale's first attempt at expansion. Backfired all to hell. Can I blame them for what they were trying? No. Never would. _

_For the longest time, the media covered the "Radical" White Fang group. Said they were uncivilized people. Monsters. Criminals, even. I hate what I did. Truly. I do. You may hate me, but I tell you now, I hate what I did. You're in the right to hate me. _

_Back when I worked with Amina, we did a lot of jobs. Not all of them were good. In fact, I'd say a good number of them were wrong. There were days we walked into small villages where the leader would talk about some evil monsters that were coming to harm them. _

_I'll never live it down. I took more from the Faunus community then they ever took from us. We did them wrong. I mean, we really did them wrong. _

_A group of Faunus showed up to town I was guarding. This was before I got The Gun. They walked up to the gate, said they were here for a peaceful protest. Maybe it would have been peaceful. Maybe not. They had weapons. That much I remember. The head guard said something and then it all kicked off. I killed four Faunus that day. _

_I was considered a hero that day. Saved those people from terrible monsters. That's not what that was. Not what I did. Yes, I killed those people. I hate what I did. But it got worse. Time went on. Amina and I killed dozens of them in our time together. _

_You have to understand, it was a different time. Faunus weren't people. They were things to be feared. Before and after the war, even now, they weren't people to us. They were things. Some still see it that way. _

_I killed so many of their kind. Grew up being told they weren't people. Just things to be used by us. If any of them got out of line, put them down. _

_Never knew them as people 'till I met a team from Atlas that had one. Funniest guy I ever laid eyes on. He was some sort of lizard Faunus. No wings. No tail. Just scales over parts of his body. Nicest guy I ever met. _

_The job was simple: Guard a section of the wall in Mantle. Not hard. Rather easy. Killed five Grimm that day. He spoke to me about his past. Said he knew who I was and understood why I did what I did. Never said he hated me for it. Wouldn't blame him if he did. _

_Naturally, I was a real jerk to him. Told him what I thought of him. Said horrible things. He just smiled and waved it off, like it was nothing. Maybe he'd heard that all his life. Probably had. _

_His name was Valencian, but his team just called him V, Val or Vale. It was a one week job. Stuck around for a little longer. I got to know him and was introduced to his Human girlfriend. Real cutie. Was it right for them to be together? Maybe. I don't judge, not anymore. Back then, some part of me felt betrayed by her. Another part of me was happy for him. _

_He was the first Faunus I spoke to, and gave me a small understanding of their struggles. We suppressed them, and I saw for the first time that Faunus weren't the monsters I had been led to believe. _

_I had my doubts about Faunus still, but found working with them a lot easier than putting them down. Night operations against them were difficult. Some had other abilities outside of their Semblance, like flight, tougher skin, ability to breath underwater, and release poison from other appendages on their body, making them that much harder to fight. But working with them? It was far easier dealing with Grimm in certain locations thanks to them._

_When The Gun came to me, I had already worked with over a few hundred of them. Most of them were old enough to remember me and my actions. Made first time jobs hard on us. They didn't trust. I don't blame them. _

_Then, when working with Silver Eyes, the Twins, and Blonde, we got an emergency call to a village close to Mistral. We kicked in the door, shot a bunch of Grimm, shot a couple more just to be safe, and then I found you. _

_I took you, not because you had a similar life to me. Do you know how many children I saved that became wards of the state? Too many to count. So, the obvious question is why I took you._

_Well I was selfish. I'd come across dozens of orphaned Faunus children when doing rescue work. Parents did what they could to save their children. Anyone would. Well any good parent, I guess. You weren't different. I saw nothing special in you. When I took you to that orphanage, that lady told me to take you to Menagerie. I could have. But I looked at you and thought I could use you to absolve myself of my past sin. Make amends to the Faunus by doing something I thought no one else would do. So, I took you in. _

_Over time you became a good student to me. Taught you how to survive. How to fight. When I knew it was time to put down my gun, I knew I'd made a mistake. _

_My Semblance isn't always active. It kicks in when it wants to. I have no idea when it starts up, but I can control the range it has. Make it easier to calm masses when they're scared. _

_I tried like hell to send you away when I realized it and the curse. I wasn't just infecting you with my Semblance, I was doing what my master did to me. I made you a pawn for the Gun's legacy. _

_Eli was straight with me. Told me that himself. Said that it had seen more hands than most people knew. Gone by other names, too. Steel Barreled Justice wasn't the original name. It's first name was Last Rites. I did some digging. Found that it did have some truth to the story he told me. _

_Last Rites wasn't just a gun. It was a work of art for its time. It was given to a man who had unlocked his Aura and Semblance, making him formidable in the time during the war. He lived in a small village, acting as the only law in it. When a group of Bandits and soldiers passed through, ravaging their lands, he fought back with all the strength he had. He threw lightning at them. Brought the heavens down upon them. Rose a mountain to block their advance. _

_It wasn't enough. Nevermind the power this man seemed to have. Might be just a farce. But, beaten, not broken, he returned to his village to give the news. They would be dead at weeks' end. _

_Despair hit them hard, but the smiths of the village weren't giving in. They poured their very souls into a single weapon: Last Rites. _

_Just as day turned to night on the final day, they came out of their shop, handing the weapon to him. They asked him to try to defend them with it. Ignite the weapon, use it against their enemy, and push back the night. _

_Last Rites in hand, he vowed to do that. For four years he fought a battle for a small village no one cared to remember. It's been stricken from the world's history. If you find the children of the smiths, they may remember, but they find you. Not the other way around. Guess it gives more myth to it. _

_As he lay dying, he offered the gun to his daughter, who took the weapon and made it her own. But it was unwieldable in her hand. It didn't act the way her father had used it. Not a day later, Last Rites disappeared with the daughter, only to appear a year later in the hands of another man. _

_Last Rites went under a new name, Warden's Reach. That wielder wandered Remnant, going wherever bad men lived. He killed without discrimination. During his time, he was accompanied by another. I don't know who. The history from that point is skewered. No one knows what happened, as it disappeared for twenty years. When it turned up again, it was once more under a new name, Defiant Spade. _

_In each story that you can find, the wielder would take another person with them after acquiring it. This person that followed would then take the weapon from them, but only receiving it after they proved themselves. _

_It took me three years to realize that I did that to you. I took you originally to absolve myself of guilt, believing I could make things right. When I realized what I was actually doing, I grew scared. I had to get you away from me. This wasn't a life I wanted to pass on to another. When I learned what little history I could, of this thing, I wanted to be the last. I vowed to be the last. _

_Yet, by some unknown power or fate, I found you and took you. _

Sienna slowly closed the book. How? How could this man do this to him? Was he that inept that he forgot the curse of a gun? What possessed this man into thinking that he had any rights to take Nickel, let alone use him to absolve himself of past sins?

And the weapon. Did it have a will of its own, enabling it the ability to act without a wielder? It was so preposterous that she couldn't think of a single mystical way that it could choose it's wielder. No power, not even those from above, could make a weapon sentient enough to give it free will.

But his previous actions against the early years of the White Fang were deplorable. He came from a time shortly after the war had ended or was close enough to it that the previous hate filtered down into him. Teachings and fear mongering were the bread and butter of uninformed people.

Noble Man he was not.

When she thought of someone with that title, they were more than just a man. They were someone so brave, strong, and fast with a desire to protect **ALL **life. Yet he got the title from killing a few Faunus. It was sick.

"Monster."

Adam turned his head just enough to see Sienna shoving the book back into her pack, her eyes tightly shut. It was a minute later that she opened them. Rage burned behind her amber eyes. There would be no peace for a while.

Putting his eyes back on the road, he wondered what horrible truth she learned. He wanted to ask her, but thought better when he saw the large wooden arch of the next village.

Between them and the village were a group of Humans, all armed with weapons, ranging from pitchforks to crossbows.

Adam snatched up the mic on the radio. "We might have trouble up ahead." He turned his attention to Sienna as she snapped from her fury, stopping the vehicle a few dozen meters away. "Any ideas?"

Sienna threw the door open with a visible scowl on her face. "Tell everyone to get into the last two trucks," she ordered as she stepped out, slamming the door as she did. She could hear Adam giving the same order as she marched up to the men, all of them smiling at her approach. "Can I help you, gentlemen?"

A tall man with a rifle stepped forward, the rifle slung over his shoulder.

As if he weren't taking her seriously.

"Yes you can. We understand your kind is doing a bit of traveling. We can let you pass, but it's going to cost you."

"Oh? I know of no toll for using this road."

"There is. Small one. We got mouths to feed. Anything helps."

"I'm sorry, but sadly, we have very little. Only little supplies to get us to Argus."

The rifle wielding man nodded slowly, no longer playing the nice guy. "Well that won't work. How about this? You leave whatever you have, the women as well, and I'll let the rest of your friend people pass."

Sienna gave a fake smile. _Of course you'd make an impossible request. _"Let me talk to my people."

"Rick, go with her!"

A sword-wielding teen walked up to Sienna, eyeing her up and down before snorting and marching towards the convoy of vehicles, the Bengal Faunus tailing him. They passed the pickup and got to the first truck. Rick threw the tarp back and found it empty.

"You're not getting what you want." Sienna grabbed the back of his head and shoved it into the metal tailgate, denting the metal and caving the front of his skull in. She tossed him into the back of the truck and turned to offer a smile to the truck behind her and it's driver.

Sighing in frustration, she slid under the truck and crawled to the pickup in the back where Adam was waiting. "Plan?"

"Drive like hell!"

Tukson punched it and the remaining two trucks took off once they got in front of them. What men that had ranged weapons all fired on their vehicle. Nickel lowered his head and a bullet shot through the back window and out the front. Sienna and Adam climbed out the passenger windows and jumped to the back two trucks as they drove through the village. Tukson did his best to avoid people, most of which ran scared from their presence.

"Map?" Tukson shouted as gunfire continued to crack like thunder behind them. He made it to the other side of the village and drove for another ten minutes before he calmed down enough to let rational thinking return. He pulled the pickup over and climbed out with Nickel. Sienna and Adam walked around the last truck, smiling and looking at the two.

"You guys gunned it," Adam joked.

Tukson growled. "What was that back there?! You said get ready for a fight. I thought we were fighting."

"We're trying to keep the loss of life to a minimum, remember?" Sienna told him.

"Fair enough. Now. Map?"

Adam licked his lips and scratched the back of his head in sheepish shame. "I left it in the pickup we were using."

"My backpack?"

"Got that." Adam made a quick dash to the back of the pickup and hefted Sienna's pack, causing her to snatch it up from him and sling it over her shoulder. "Any idea on where to go from here? I remember a fork in the road a little further up, but not which one to take."

"Get in." Nickel ordered as he got in the front seat. "I know a place that's close by."

"Is it safe."

"Was."

The three arched a brow before complying. With night quickly approaching, anything would be better than sleeping in tents and doing night shifts. Once they were back on the road, Nickel began giving instructions. Dusk turned to night before they came across a ruined wooden wall with two massive doors to the gate smashed in.

The courtyard was barren of life. Buildings were burned or torn down, either by the structural damage or by the hammer of time. Grass was knee high in front of various houses with crops behind a few that had been eaten at by wild animals. Some buildings had mounds in front of the homes, giving the ghost village an eerie vibe to the children.

"I don't remember this place on the map." Adam confessed.

"You won't find it on a map. Too new." Nickel answered quietly. He walked off in a drunken haze.

"If it's new, then how does he know about it?" Tukson asked.

Sienna looked at one of the mounds of dirt and then to the building it was in front of. It hit her a moment later as Tukson went inside to find anything viable for a bed. "It's his village." Slowly, she faced Adam. He had realized it too. "We brought him home."

Adam watched Nickel wonder into the distance, heading up the mountain. "We shouldn't have come here."


End file.
